A medical field study conducted by a team of male and female medical students at King Abdulaziz University here has concluded that there is a general lack of awareness of the purpose of premarital medical tests among university students. Furthermore, this lack of awareness exists even among those who have taken the tests prior to marriage and who have a basic understanding of hereditary diseases and the way they are transmitted, the study found out. The study covered a sample of 800 male and female students from different faculties in the university. Dr. Jumanah Yusuf Al-A'ma, Director of Princess Al-Jawharah Center for Research in Hereditary Diseases, said, “The study probed the reasons for going ahead with marriage despite the genetic non-compatibility of the couple. This stresses the importance of educating young men and women about premarital tests and their role.” She said the timing for conducting the tests can pose an obstacle which may result in the couple choosing to ignore the test results. The rent for the couple's apartment has most likely already been paid and the two families must have rented the wedding hall besides having made other arrangements. This is in addition to the young man and woman becoming emotionally attached to one another hence making cancellation of the engagement difficult. “The study stressed the necessity of conducting premarital tests before the engagement and preferably at the beginning of university education. The tests should be preceded by specialists taking a full history of hereditary diseases in both families so that the couple intending to get married may be able to attach due importance to the test results,” Al-A'ma said. The study, she added, recommended increasing awareness of the importance of premarital tests and explaining which diseases the couple must be tested for and what results would be expected if the couple choose to ignore test results which indicate incompatibility and go ahead with their marriage.
