SICKLE CELL DISORDER

BACKGROUND: Hemoglobinopathies are the commonest inherited genetic disorders worldwide. Sickle cell disorders were discovered by Dr J.B Herrick in 1904. There are some hopes for a definitive cure for sickle cell disorders in the form of stem cell transplantation. However premarital screening for intending couples seem to be an important primary preventive method. Pre-marital medical screening is a panel of tests that couples preparing to get married undertake so as to detect any genetic or infectious disease that may be transmitted to each other of their offspring. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to add to the existing body of knowledge on sickle cell disorder and to access the knowledge, attitude and practice of premarital screening for sickle cell disorder among students of University of Benin. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 393 students using multi- stage sampling technique from six selected faculties (Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Education, Management Sciences, Law, Pharmacy.) from the 13 faculties in the University. The time duration of this study spanned from August 2019 to June 2021. Data was collected using an self-administered questionnaire. Data was obtained and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25.0. Analysis employed descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at 5%.