EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION INTERVENTIONS ON GENOTYPE COMPATIBILITY DECISION AMONG YOUTHS TO PREVENT SICKLE CELL DISEASE.

In order to stem the tide of sickle cell disease (SCD), there is the need for the development and deployment of appropriate intervention messages to members of the society. This study assessed the effect of health talk, health flyers, and a combination of health talk and health flyers in equipping youths with knowledge on genotype premarital decisions towards prevention of SCD. The study utilized three groups pretest posttest quasi-experimental design. The multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 123 youths. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Two research hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance fixed at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that the participants under a combination of Health Talk and Health Messages using flyers benefited more in the intervention compared to participants exposed to Health Talk and the use of flyers. A significant difference was observed in the effect of Health Talk, Health Messages using flyers, combination of Health Talk and Health Messages using flyers on participants’ premarital decisions towards SCD. It is recommended that sickle cell disease education should be added to the health education curriculum of senior secondary schools and tertiary institutions. This will help to educate the youths on sickle cell disease at early age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]