Memoona Rasheed, Naghmi Asif, Khalid Hassan.
Knowledge and Awareness about Genetic Problems Associated with Consanguineous Marriages among Non-Medical Students of Islamabad.
J Islamabad Med Dent Coll Jan ;6(4):263-7.

Objective: To access the level of knowledge of non-medical students about genetic problems related to consanguinity. Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted from September 2015 to June 2016 to collect information regarding acquaintance and perceptions about, consanguineous marriages among students of different colleges and universities of Federal Capital. Specially designed performa was used to collect data. The collected data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 16.0. Demographic characteristics of participants were calculated as Mean±SD. Chi-square test was applied to check the level of significance among different categorical variables. Results: A total of 424 students were surveyed, out of which 155 (36.6%) were male and 269 (63.4%) were female. The mean age of the study population was 20.39 ±2.44. The data analysis showed only 9.7% of students are fully aware of the problems associated with consanguinity. Girls were found to be more aware as compared to boys (p= 0.05) and among all ethnic groups, Punjabis were found to be more aware (16.9%). In subjects with a history of parental consanguinity and consanguinity in siblings, low level of awareness (8.8% and 8.5% respectively) was found. Conclusion: Efforts should be made to increase the knowledge about consanguinity and its association with genetic diseases among non-medical students. 

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