University Students in Nigeria: Attitude Towards Marriage in the Face of Haemoglobin Genotype Incompatibly
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/tnhj.v13i3.103Keywords:
Marriage Decision, University Students, Hb Genotype, IncompatibilityAbstract
Background: Sickle cell disease is the commonest genetic disease world over and predominantly affects Africans and the generality of the black race. The issue of genotype incompatibility among prospective couples and decisions on marriage under such circumstances can have significant implications on the control of this dreaded disease in any country. The purpose of this study was to find out the awareness of students of Benue State University, Makurdi of their haemoglobin genotype status, and their attitude towards marriage in the face of genotype incompatibility.
Methods: This was cross sectional study involving 300 students of Benue State University, Makurdi; selected by a multistage stratified sampling technique, using self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire tapped relevant information on the awareness of students of their haemoglobin genotype status and what would be their decision on marriage in the face of genotype incompatibility.
Results: One hundred and fourteen students (38%) admitted that they were engaged in an ongoing relationship serious enough to end in marriage. Of this, approximately half (50.8%) knew their haemoglobin genotype status, while only 41.2% knew their partners' haemoglobin genotype. As much as 47% of these students who are involved in a relationship indicated their intention to proceed with marriage to their partners, genotype incompatibility notwithstanding.
Conclusion: Many university students do not view sickle cell anaemia and genotype incompatibility as issues to be considered in making marital decisions and are therefore willing to proceed with marriage in such circumstances. The study recommends that counsellors should intensify awareness and campaign on premarital genetic counselling among Nigerian undergraduates.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 The Nigerian Health Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.
