Winning the fight against sickle cell disease in Africa: The need to redefine premarital sickle cell trait screening to promote awareness

Peter, Priscilla D.; Makeri, Danladi

doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_1042_23

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…There is a need to intensify awareness campaigns about SCD and SCTS in this part of the continent. However, in Uganda, genotype screening before producing children should be emphasized against screening before marriage because 20-30% of Ugandan women produce children without marrying; this is the case in Kenya [36,37].…”

Section: Pe-riodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Update on the practice of premarital screening for sickle cell traits in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Dilli,

Obeagu,

Tamale

et al. 2024

BMC Public Health

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Background Screening for sickle cell traits before marriage or producing children is one of the outstanding preventive measures for sickle cell disease (SCD).The disease is a collection of inherited blood disorders that impact millions globally, with a predominant 75% occurrence in the sub-Saharan region. With increasing burden of SCD on the continent amidst a cost effective prevention method, no study has systematically reviewed or presented meta-analytic uptake or practice of premarital sickle cell trait screening. Methods This review systematically explored the uptake or practice of premarital genotype screening in Africa. We searched PubMed and Scopus databases for African studies on premarital screening for sickle cell traits. Results Our results indicate that the pooled uptake of premarital sickle cell trait screening in Africa is 47.82% (95% CI: [46.53–49.11]; I2: 98.95% [98.74–99.13]). Our review observed, a significant relationship between the awareness of sickle cell disease and the uptake of genotype screening; F(1, 13) = 12.04, p = 0.004). The model explained approximately 48.08% of the variation in genotype screening (R² = 0.4808) and predicted a 0.729 increase in the likelihood of genotype screening uptake for every unit rise in sickle cell disease awareness (β = 0.729, p = 0.004). Additionally, Pearson correlation (r = 0.6934) indicated a moderately strong positive correlation between the two variables. Conclusion With over 75% of the global burden of sickle cell disease domiciled in Africa, the continent cannot overlook the cost of hemoglobinopathies. The uptake of sickle cell traits screening is suboptimal across the continent. To achieve the mandate of sustainable development goal number (3); to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age by 2030, there is need to intensify campaigns on premarital genetic screening through education and other health promotion tools.

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Section: Pe-riodmentioning

confidence: 99%