391560

Awareness of Importance of Premarital Counseling among Students of Kafr El-Sheikh University, Egypt

Article

Last updated: 04 May 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Community Medicine

Abstract

Background: Premarital counseling is a fundamental component of preventive healthcare, designed to identify and mitigate potential genetic, congenital, and psychosocial risks within couples considering marriage. Aim: To assess awareness of university students about importance of premarital counseling. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on university students from two medical and two non-medical faculties at Kafr el-Sheikh University. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data about awareness. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: a socio-demographic section based on the modified Fahmy and El-Sherbini scale, and a 16-item assessment of students' awareness of premarital counseling. Results: Total of 280 students were included with average age of 22.5 years and 82.1% were females. Approximately 92.0% were non-medical students, 71.8% single, 58.5% urban and 76.8% had positive consanguinity. The study reported that 29.6% of students heard about premarital counselling. Approximately 63.9% of students thought that marriage plans wouldn't be affected by the results of the premarital counselling. Approximately 34.3% of the students thought that premarital screening should be mandatory. The most common reason for refusing premarital counselling was "not to interfere with God's will" (27.4%) and "fear of test results" (13.7%). The following were significant predictors of students' awareness about premarital counselling, marital status, college, and socioeconomic status. Conclusion: Medical students and engaged students had higher levels of awareness of premarital counseling and its services. Health education campaigns should target university students to highlight the importance of premarital counseling. Educational elective curriculum can be added for students in nonmedical faculties.

DOI

10.21608/ejcm.2024.319903.1328

Keywords

Premarital counselling, Awareness, University students, Egypt

Authors

First Name

Hend

Last Name

Gomaa

MiddleName

Magdy

Affiliation

Public Health & Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt.

Email

hendmagdy86@hotmail.com

City

Mansoura

Orcid

0000-0002-6910-0961

First Name

Noha

Last Name

Eladawi

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Public Health & Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt.

Email

n_adawy@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Remonda

Last Name

Nabil Haries Abdou

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Kafr El Sheikh University, Egypt

Email

remondanabil99@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

43

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

55344

Issue Date

2025-04-01

Receive Date

2024-09-10

Publish Date

2025-04-01

Page Start

125

Page End

134

Print ISSN

1110-1865

Online ISSN

2090-2611

Link

https://ejcm.journals.ekb.eg/article_391560.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=391560

Order

391,560

Type

Original Article

Type Code

234

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine

Publication Link

https://ejcm.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Awareness of Importance of Premarital Counseling among Students of Kafr El-Sheikh University, Egypt

Details

Type

Article

Created At

04 May 2025