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We explored the attitudes and opinions of 90 Palestinian decision-makers about the draft law on premarital examination. The findings revealed that decision-makers were aware of the spread of genetic diseases but not infectious diseases. The majority agreed on the draft law; however, they differed on the mode of its application. Half believed that the law is not ready yet for application due to insufficient financial support to establish the needed infrastructure. The most significant recommendations made by the decision-makers were to: enhance community awareness of the law, ensure proper coordination among the concerned ministries and institutions, and establish a national organization to work on endorsement of the tests and issuance of the appropriate application strategies and regulations.

The development of effective programs to prevent marital dysfunction has been a recent focus for marital researchers, but the effective dissemination of these programs to engaged couples has received relatively little attention. The purpose of this study is to determine which factors predict couples' participation in premarital counseling. Predictive factors were derived from the health prevention literature, with a particular focus on the health belief model (HBM). Couples' beliefs and attitudes about premarital counseling were assessed at least six months before their wedding, and participation was assessed after their wedding. Results indicate that the strongest predictors of couples' participation were couples' perceptions of barriers to counseling and whether they had counseling recommended to them. These variables predicted participation even after controlling for important demographic variables. Recommendations for recruiting engaged couples for premarital counseling are made based on the findings.

Aim: To determine factors influencing voluntary counseling and premarital testing on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Malawi., Method: We analyzed the data collected by the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) 2000 to determine the likelihood of Malawi population to accept HIV testing. The MDHS was a nationwide cross-sectional study where cluster sampling technique and an interviewer-administered questionnaire were used. We applied the Logit model of analysis to determine the HIV testing likelihood according to the following parameters: age, place of residence (urban vs. rural), belief that sexual abstinence protects from HIV infection, knowledge of a location of HIV testing, belief that diagnosis of HIV should be kept secret, and knowledge of anyone with AIDS., Results: Out of 3,092 participants, 23.3% lived in urban and 76.7% in rural areas. Willingness to have premarital HIV counseling and testing was positively associated with increased age, urban residence, and wish to keep one's own HIV testing result confidential. However, knowledge of a person with HIV/AIDS, HIV testing location, and other sexually transmitted infections/diseases, as well as belief that abstinence protects against HIV were inversely related to desire to take an HIV test., Conclusion: Not all population groups have an equal likelihood of accepting voluntary HIV counseling and testing. Public health intervention on HIV counseling and testing should be tailored specifically for each population group.

Premarital counselling and examination have begun to play a very important role in the management of many genetic disorders. 600 villager's knowledge and attitudes toward premarital counselling and examination in Menofia Governorate was studied in order to predict the community acceptance and behaviour toward utilization of such service. The result showed a big lack in knowledge even among educated respondents about the term. The main source of information was mass media followed by medical personnel who should participate more in this service. Most respondents, except unmarried males, have a favourable attitude toward either premarital counselling and examination or consanguinous marriage. This may be related to certain social changes in village life such as declining illiteracy, increased economic pressures, increase number of nuclear families and accordingly delay in beginning a family. It was unlikely that non-contraceptive users would resort to induced abortion rather to use contraceptive methods. Educational programs should be directed toward: (a) unmarried males so that their attitude toward premarital counselling and examination can be changed to correct direction, (b) unmarried females to make consanginous marriage more undesirable, and (c) non-contraceptive users to make them more intended to use safe contraceptive methods than induced abortion.