Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:43:14.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CONSANGUINITY IN LEBANON: PREVALENCE, DISTRIBUTION AND DETERMINANTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2009

BERNADETTE BARBOUR  and
PASCALE SALAMEH
BERNADETTE BARBOUR
Affiliation:
Faculty of Public Health, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
PASCALE SALAMEH
Affiliation:
Faculty of Public Health & Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The union of individuals with a common ancestor may lead to serious health consequences in their offspring. Consanguinity is high in Middle Eastern communities; it was around 26% in 1988. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of consanguinity in Beirut and other Lebanese regions, and its associated factors in different subgroups. The cross-sectional study was performed on a convenience sample of married women in Lebanon. The women were administered a standardized questionnaire in a face-to-face interview by independent enquirers. Among 1556 women, the overall prevalence of consanguineous marriages was 35·5%, and the consanguinity coefficient was 0·020; 968 marriages (62·2%) were not consanguineous, 492 (31·6%) were first cousin, 61 (3·9%) were second cousin and 36 (2·3%) had lower degrees of consanguinity. Beirut suburb dwelling, low education subgroups, women working in the home and non-Christian religion presented the highest rates of consanguinity (p<0·05). Consanguinity is associated with couples' nulliparity and child chronic morbidity. Factors that could affect consanguinity are having consanguineous parents, having a favourable opinion towards consanguinity, choosing a spouse for religious reasons, particularly in Islam, woman having a low education, woman working in the home and women thinking that consanguinity would not lead to serious diseases. Consanguinity is therefore still a prevailing problem in Lebanon. Specific health education, and genetic counselling in particular, are suggested to explain the consequences of consanguinity to the general population and to help couples make informed choices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , July 2009 , pp. 505 - 517
Copyright
Copyright © © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdulrazzak, Y. M., Bener, A., Al-Ghazali, L. I., Al-Khayat, A. I., Micallef, R. & Gaber, T. (1997) A study of possible deleterious effects of consanguinity. Clinical Genetics 51, 167–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Abdulkareem, A. A. & Ballal, S. G. (1998) Consanguineous marriage in an urban area of Saudi Arabia: rates and adverse health effects on the offspring. Journal of Community Health 23, 75–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al Arrayed, S. (1994) Consanguinity in the state of Bahrain. In El-Hazmi, M. A. F. (ed.) Medical Genetics in the Setting of Middle Eastern Populations. King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, pp. 97–101.Google Scholar
Al-Gazali, L. I., Bener, A., Abdulrazzaq, Y. M., Micallef, R., Al-Khayat, A. I. & Gaber, T. (1997) Consanguineous marriages in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Biosocial Science 29, 491–497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Hamamy, H., Al-Bayati, N. & Al-Kubaisy, W. (1986) Consanguineous unions in the Iraqi urban population and the effect on pregnancy outcome and infant mortality. Iraqi Medical Journal 34, 75–80.Google Scholar
Al-Salem, M. & Al-Rawashdeh, N. (1993) Consanguinity in North Jordan: prevalence and pattern. Journal of Biosocial Science 25, 553–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albar, M. A. (2002) Ethical considerations in the prevention and management of genetic disorders with special emphasis on religious considerations. Saudi Medical Journal 23, 627–632.Google ScholarPubMed
Bennett, R., Motulsky, A. G., Bittles, A. H., Hudgins, L., Uhrich, S. & Lochner Doyle, D. et al. (2002) Genetic counseling and screening of consanguineous couples and their offspring: recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. Journal of Genetic Counseling 11, 97–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bittles, A. H. (1994) The role and significance of consanguinity as a demographic variable. Population and Development Review 20, 561–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, A. H. (2001) A Background Summary of Consanguineous Marriage. URL: www.consang.net.Google Scholar
Bittles, A. H. (1995) When cousins marry: a review of consanguinity in the Middle East. Perspectives in Human Biology 1, 71–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, A. H., Grant, J. C., Sullivan, S. G. & Hussain, R. (2002) Does consanguinity lead to decreased human nulliparity? Annals of Human Biology 29, 111–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmi, R., Elbedour, K., Wietzman, D., Sheffield, V. & Shoham-Vardi, I. (1998) Lowering the burden of hereditary diseases in a traditional, inbred community: ethical aspects of genetic research and its application. Science Context 11, 391–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Moroni, A. & Zei, G. (2004) Consanguinity, Consanguinity, and Genetic Drift in Italy. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Central Administration of Statistics (2005) The National Study for Households Living Conditions in 2004. Beirut. URL: www.cas.org.Google Scholar
El-Hazmi, M. A. F., Al-Swailem, A. R., Warsy, A. S., Al-Swailem, A. M., Sulaimani, R. & Al-Meshari, A. A. (1995) Consanguinity among the Saudi Arabian population. Journal of Medical Genetics 52, 623–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freundlich, E. & Hino, N. (1984) Consanguineous marriage among rural Arabs in Israel. Israel Journal of Medical Sciences 20, 1035–1038.Google ScholarPubMed
Grant, J. C. & Bittles, A. H. (1997) The comparative role of consanguinity in infant and child mortality in Pakistan. Annals of Human Genetics 61, 143–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hafez, M., El-Tahan, H., Awadalla, M., El-Khayat, H., Abdel-Gafar, A. & Ghoneim, M (1983) Consanguineous unions in the Egyptian population. Journal of Medical Genetics 20, 58–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussain, R. (1999) Community perceptions of reasons for preference for consanguineous marriages in Pakistan. Journal of Biosocial Science 31, 449–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaber, L., Halpern, G. J. & Shohat, T. (2000) Trends in the frequencies of consanguineous marriages in the Israeli Arab community. Clinical Genetics 58, 106–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jurdi, R. & Saxena, P. C. (2003) The prevalence and correlates of consanguineous marriages in Yemen: similarities and contrasts with other Arab countries. Journal of Biosocial Sciences 35, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khlat, M. (1988) Consanguineous marriage and reproduction in Beirut, Lebanon. American Journal of Human Genetics 43, 188–196.Google ScholarPubMed
Khlat, M. & Khudr, A. (1984) Religious endogamy and consanguinity in marriage patterns in Beirut, Lebanon. Social Biology 33, 138–145.Google Scholar
Khoury, S. A. & Massad, D. (1992) Consanguineous marriages in Jordan. American Journal of Medical Genetics 43, 769–775.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kobeissi, L. & Inhorn, M. C. (2007) Health issues in the Arab American community. Male infertility in Lebanon: a case-controlled study. Ethnic diseases 17, S3–38.Google Scholar
Ober, C., Elias, S., Kostyu, D. D. & Hauck, W. W. (1992) Decreased fecundability in Hutterite couples sharing HLA-DR. American Journal of Human Genetics 50, 6–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Ober, C., Hyslop, T. & Hauck, W. W. (1999) Consanguinity effects on fertility in humans: evidence for reproductive compensation. American Journal of Human Genetics 64, 225–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rajab, A. & Patton, M. A. (2000). A study of consanguinity in the Sultanate of Oman. Annals of Human Biology 27, 321–326.Google ScholarPubMed
Raz, A. E. & Atar, M. (2004) Cousin marriage and premarital carrier matching in a Bedouin community in Israel: attitudes, service development and educational intervention. Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 30, 49–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saadallah, A. A. & Rashed, M. S. (2007) Newborn screening: experiences in the Middle East and North Africa. Journal of Inherited and Metabolic Diseases 30, 482–489. Epub August 15th 2007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vardi-Saliternik, R., Friedlander, Y. & Cohen, T. (2002) Consanguinity in a population sample of Israeli Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs and Druze. Annals of Human Biology 29, 422–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar