A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Effects of Consanguineous Marriage on Offspring among Young Adults in Selected College

Introduction: Consanguineous marriages are a common practice in the Middle East, Asian and African populations. Many studies have stated an association between first cousin marriages and the incidence of autosomal recessive diseases and congenital malformations. The objectives of the study were 1) To assess the existing knowledge regarding effects of consanguineous marriage on offspring among young adults. 2) To determine the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding effects of consanguineous marriage on offspring among young adults.

Methods: A pre-experimental and descriptive evaluatory research approach was used with one group pre-test post-test design to evaluate the effectiveness of the STP .This study was conducted on 60 young adults.

Results: In pre-test, majority of the young adults 39(65%) had inadequate knowledge, followed by 18 (30%) had moderate knowledge and only 3 (5%) had adequate knowledge. In post-test, majority of the young adults 30(50%) had moderate knowledge, followed by 28 (46.67%) had high knowledge and only 2(3.33%) had inadequate knowledge.

Conclusion: The major findings revealed that structured teaching programme enhanced the knowledge of the young adults on effects of consanguineous marriage on offspring. The overall mean percentage of post-test knowledge scores of the young adults 76.31% is apparently higher than the overall mean percentage of pre-test knowledge score 53.75% and is significant at 0.05% level. Paired 't' =16.25, p<0.05 indicating that the STP was effective in gaining knowledge of the young adults on effects of consanguineous marriage on offspring.