Consanguinity and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: The North of Jordan Experience

Abstract

This cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the association between consanguineous marriages and adverse pregnancy outcome in the north of Jordan. Women delivered in four major hospitals in the north of Jordan between April 2007 and May 2007 were included in the study. Non-Jordanian women and women with multiple pregnancies were excluded. Mothers answered a pilot-tested structured questionnaire administered by trained personnel in the maternity ward. Data regarding pregnancy outcomes were obtained from the patients' individual records. A total of 3,269 women with a mean age of 27.2 (SD 6.6) years were included. About 49% of women had consanguineous marriages. Consanguineous marriages were significantly associated with low birth weight delivery (13.9% vs. 10.1%), preterm delivery (19.9% vs. 12.3%), and births with congenital anomalies (4.1% vs. 0.8%) compared with non-consanguineous marriages. In the multivariate analysis, consanguinity was significantly associated with preterm delivery (OR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.2, 1.9), and congenital malformations (OR = 6.5, 95% CI 2.8, 15.3). In conclusions, this study supports the association between consanguinity and some adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Consanguineous Marriage

“…This prevalence was reported much lower in western communities like Austria (less than 1%), but higher in other countries; 35% in Syria, 49% in Jordan, 22% in Turkey, 35% in Egypt, and over 50% in Saudi Arabia (1,4,10,12,16,17). On the other hand our results showed that 26.9% of all participants had consanguineous parents which reflect the higher frequency of consanguinity in the previous generations.…”

“…Consanguinity or marriage between a man and woman who are related by blood is a global health issue with a variety of distributions and occurrence rates around the world (1). Consanguineous marriage is defined by human geneticists as the unions of second cousins (forth degree relatives) or closer relatives (2,3).…”

“…Consanguineous marriage is defined by human geneticists as the unions of second cousins (forth degree relatives) or closer relatives (2,3). It is recently estimated that 20% of human populations live in communities with a tendency toward endogamy and globally 8.5% of all children have consanguineous parents (1,2). The prevalence of consanguineous marriage varies widely between and within countries.…”

“…Several studies came to the agreement that consanguinity is the most common risk factor for congenital anomalies (1,6,7). It has been proven that off-springs of consanguineous parents are at higher risk for perinatal and postnatal mortality and morbidity, stillbirth, low birth weight, preterm labor, childhood mortality, and lower IQ level (1,4,8,9). Consanguinity is associated with ten-fold higher risk of autosomal recessive disorders for progenies (10).…”

The Effect of Consanguinity on Neonatal Outcomes and Health

“…These findings initiated further interest and led to investigations on larger sample sizes for stronger power analyses in different populations. In 2010, 2 larger studies from Jordan [20] and Lebanon [21] emerged and correlated consanguinity with PTB. Among 3,269 Jordanian women with a 49% consanguinity rate, inbreeding increased the risk of spontaneous preterm delivery at <37 weeks of gestation (OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.2-1.9) [20] .…”