Awareness of Non-Health Students about Premarital Genetic Screening; A Study in Indonesia

Aims: Premarital screening is a procedure to assess health status before entering the marital stage. In Indonesia, this examination has not been fully optimized for controlling catastrophic diseases, including genetic diseases. This study aimed to determine the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward premarital genetic screening in non-medical and health students. Instruments Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 400 non-healthcare students from the southern region of Central Java, who were selected using a simple random sampling method. The knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward premarital genetic screening were measured using questionnaires. The chi-square test was used to look for relationships between variables. Findings: The knowledge level in 55.5% of respondents was sufficient, in 42.5% was poor, and in 2% was good. Most respondents (57.3%) had a positive attitude. The majority of the respondents exhibited a positive attitude toward all indicators, except for actively seeking information. 355 respondents (88.75%) displayed positive behavior toward premarital genetic screening, while the 45 respondents (11.25%) exhibited negative behavior. There was no significant relationship between knowledge with attitude and behavior (p 0.05), but a significant relationship was observed between attitude and behavior (p=0.021). Conclusion: There is no relationship between knowledge and attitude. However, the study found a relationship between attitudes and behaviors toward premarital and genetic screening in non-health students.