Consanguinity, fertility, reproductive wastage, infant mortality and congenital malformations in Jordan

Objectives: Consanguinity is a wide spread practice in Jordan. The objectiv e of this study is to explore the health effects of consanguinity, in parti cular fertility, reproductive wastage, infant mortality and congenital malf ormations. Methods: A stratified 2 stage cluster sample of 1867 married couples, repre sentative of all population groups and all geographic locations of Jordan w ere randomly selected. A questionnaire was specially designed to explore ea ch of the objectives set for the study and was field tested. A group of fie ld workers were thoroughly trained on the implementation of this instrument . All 1867 couples were interviewed by these field workers and completed qu estionnaires were reviewed before data entry. Data analysis was carried out using SPSSX statistical package. Significance tests were performed whereve r appropriate. Results: The study showed that fertility, as measured by the number of preg nancies, taking into consideration marriage duration, was not affected by c onsanguinity. Twin pregnancies and abortions did not show any significant d ifference between consanguineous and nonconsanguineous marriages. Consangui neous marriages showed significantly higher rates of still births and infan t mortality in general. Within the consanguineous group, female infant mort ality rates were significantly higher than those of males. Congenital malfo rmations as reported by mothers of consanguineous marriages were significan tly higher than those reported by mothers of nonconsanguineous marriages. Conclusion: This study showed that consanguinity has a detrimental effect o n many aspects of reproductive health.