Objective: This study aims to determine the awareness among educated and uneducated parents of beta-thalassemia major patients about antenatal screening.
Setting: The study was conducted by the Lady Reading Hospital Medical Teaching Institution (MTI), Peshawar. Duration of the study: This study was conducted for six months.
Materials and methods: A total of 296 parents of beta-thalassemia major were interviewed. Parents who were not ready to give consent and other hemolytic anemia patients were excluded. Data were collected on self-structure pretested Performa. The demography of the patients and awareness of the parents regarding antenatal screening were recorded from each participant. A chi-squared test was used to assess the association between parental education and antenatal screening. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: A total of 296 patients were studied; 160 were males (54.1%), and 136 were females (45.9%). The mean age was 6.84 years. Mothers (74.3%) accompanied majority of the patients. Most of the parents (265; 89.5%) were uneducated, and 80% of the parents were not aware of any antenatal screening.
Conclusion: There was a significant association between the education of parents and awareness of antenatal screening (p = 0.01).
Keywords: antenatal screening; beta thalassemia major; education of the parents; parental awareness; β-thalassemia.
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