motivational interviewing and compliance with carriers screening for beta-thalassemia trait in zahedan premarital counseling center, iran

Background: screening and early genetic counseling programs for beta-thalassemia (bt) are of paramount importance during the pre-pregnancy period in high-risk individuals. objectives: the current study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of motivational interviewing on couples‘ compliance with carriers screening for bt. methods: the study was performed on 80 couples with suspected blood indexes for thalassemia trait (mean corpuscular volume (mcv) < 80 and/or mean corpuscular hemoglobin (mch) < 27 and hemoglobin (hb) a2 ≤ 3.5), referred to zahedan premarital counseling center (pcc), iran, from april 2015 to january 2016. the participants were randomly divided into motivational interviewing (mi) and routine care (control) groups; compliance was considered as number of couples referring to the center after 30 days post-intervention for re-evaluation of blood indexes, and in the second phase, if needed, referring to zahedan prenatal diagnosis (pnd) center for genetic testing, within five months. results: in the first phase, noncompliance rates were 9.86% and 26.03% for the motivational interviewing (mi) and control groups, respectively. preventive fraction (pf) indicated a 62% reduction in noncompliance after one month. in the second phase, five months after mi, noncompliance rates were 79.17% and 94.74% in the mi and control groups, respectively (pf=0.17). conclusions: the mi group showed better compliance with short-term bt screening program, evidenced by higher rates of referral to the pcc.