Premarital hemoglobinopathy screening program results of a province in the Black Sea region of Turkey: three years’ experience

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Hemoglobinopathies are a global public health problem with high mortality and morbidity and very expensive treatment. Disease can be reduced and prevented with hemoglobinopathy screening tests. It is possible to identify carriers with the hemoglobinopathy screening program applied in many countries of the world and in Turkey. This study aims to evaluate the results of the national premarital hemoglobinopathy screening program carried out in primary healthcare institutions.

Methods

The research is of epidemiological and cross-sectional type. Electrophoresis results examined within the scope of the premarital hemoglobinopathy screening program in Samsun between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021 were evaluated retrospectively. Age, gender, year of screening, and hemoglobinopathy screening results were obtained from the records. In the statistical analysis of the data, p < 0.05 was accepted.

Results

The median age of 52,338 people screened under the hemoglobinopathy screening program was 29.0 (16.0–86.0) years. About 54.1% (n = 28,309) of those who were screened were female, and it was found that the least screening was done in 2020 (n = 15,765 (30.1%)). As a result of the screening, the frequency of the β-thalassemia (β-thal) trait was 1.37% (n = 676), the frequency of the abnormal HbS was 0.04% (n = 20). The frequency of β-thal trait was statistically significantly higher in 2020 (1.5%) compared to other years (p = 0.029). When the results were analyzed by gender, the rate of women with abnormal HbS (3.7%) was significantly higher than the others (p = 0.017).

Conclusions

This study presents the results of the national hemoglobinopathy screening program in Northern Turkey and the β-thal and the abnormal HbS rates were found to be low. The data obtained will be useful in monitoring hemoglobinopathy disorders and evaluating the current program’s effectiveness in the future. It will allow decision-makers to implement policy changes and prioritize new programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Hemoglobinopathy
• beta-thalassemia
• premarital
• thalassemia
• screening programs

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful and thank all the staff appointed in this study in Samsun Public Health Laboratory and to the responsible physician of Samsun Public Health Laboratory, Biochemistry Specialist Dr Duygu SUVACI, for their technical support.

Ethics statement

Ethics committee approval was received with the date 09.02.2022, numbered OMU-KAEK 2022/58 and the necessary institutional permissions were obtained from the Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Ethics Committee. Written informed consent was not obtained from the patients since the study was conducted on anonymous data of records. Informed consent was waived by the Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Ethics Committee. At every stage of the study, the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki were followed.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu, Sibel Turkan. Data curation: Sule Ozdemir, Sibel Turkan. Formal analysis: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu, Sibel Turkan. Investigation: Sule Ozdemir, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu. Methodology: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu. Project administration: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc. Resources: Sule Ozdemir. Supervision: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu, Sibel Turkan. Writing – original draft: Sule Ozdemir. Writing – review & editing: Sule Ozdemir, Muhammet Ali Oruc, Bahadır Yazıcıoglu, Sibel Turkan.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.