Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder and rising in the world as a health problem. Due to the criticality of this disease, in our country thalassemia prevention programs are more importance. The aim of this study was investigation of knowledge, attitude and behavior of marrying partners who were thalassemia genetic carriers in prevention of the birth of the children with major thalassemia

METHODS: This study was a descriptive-analytic study. Data collection tool was a self-administered questionnaire that included 43 items. The content validity of questionnaire was investigated under the supervision of physicians, experts of health education and promotion. Its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's Alpha test. The subjects in the study consisted of 100 marrying partners who were genetic carriers of thalassemia who referred to Premarital Counseling Center in Iranshahr City. Iranshahr is a a large city of Sistan and Balouchestan Province that located in southeast of Iran. The subjects were selected by convenience non-probability sampling method. Data analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistical tests in SPSS 16.00 and level of significance considered on α < 0.05.

FINDINGS: The average age of men and women that participated in this study was 21.92 and 24 years respectively. 88% of the partners had familial relationships. The educational level of most of the men (34%) was diploma and of women (44%) was pre-diploma. The research findings showed that 7% and 62% of the subjects had poor and mediocre levels of knowledge respectively. Also results showed that only 13% of them had a satisfactory behavior and educational status had a positive correlation with knowledge, behavior, perceived susceptibility and perceived severity (P<0.05). As well there was a significant statistical relationship between gender and familial relationship, and the perceived barriers of participants. (p=0.01).

The survey viewpoint of participants showed that they believed knowledge increasing (40%), genetic counseling (33%) and premarital screening (27%) were the most important strategies for prevention of thalassemia.

CONCLUSION: The perceived barriers were the strongest predictors for preventive behaviors of incidence of major thalassemia in marrying partners, therefor educational interventions should focused on perceived barriers removing in Volunteer marrying partners.

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