Spinal muscular atrophy carrier screening program: awareness and attitude of healthcare professionals in Turkey

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by variants in the SMN1 gene, leading to progressive muscle weakness. The carrier frequency of SMN1 gene variants, including variant and copy number variations, is estimated to be around 1 in 50 people, while the global prevalence of SMA is 1–3 per 10,000 live births. In response to the increasing carrier proportion, especially due to consanguineous marriages, Turkey launched the SMA Carrier Screening Program in 2021. Notably, recent SMA cases have been observed in the children of healthcare workers who did not undergo carrier screening, prompting us to evaluate their awareness of this program. After receiving ethics approval, 1,322 healthcare professionals completed a 15-item survey based on the SMA Carrier Screening Guidelines. Of these, 5.8% were unaware of SMA, and 26% lacked information about the national screening program. Awareness of the screening program was significantly lower among secondary and tertiary healthcare professionals compared to primary healthcare professionals ( p