Knowledge and attitudes toward Tay-Sachs disease among a college student population

To assess the feasibility of screening the single Jewish population for Tay-Sachs disease (TSD), a questionnaire examining the knowledge of and attitudes toward TSD and genetic screening was sent to 348 Yale University Jewish undergraduates. Of those students responding (63 percent), 78 percent were able to answer general genetic questions correctly while only 1.9 percent could answer specific Tay-Sachs questions correctly. A majority of the students (93.9 percent) indicated some concern about being a carrier for TSD, believed that carrier status would affect future social and reproductive behavior, and expressed an interest in having TS carrier status determined while still single (77.4 percent). Strong correlations were found between knowledge and attitudes, but no significant differences appeared between male and female respondents. In addition to leading to improvements in Tay-Sachs screening programs, the observations have led to suggestions that may be generalized to other genetic screening programs.