Abstract
Background:
The aim of our study was to understand the relationship between consanguineous marriages and reproductive outcomes.
Methods:
A total of 999 families were recruited from five Muslim populations of Jammu region. Family pedigrees were drawn to access the family history and inbreeding status in terms of coefficient of inbreeding (F). Fertility, mortality, secondary sex ratio, selection intensity, and lethal equivalents were measured using standard methods.
Results:
The significant differences for gross fertility was found to be higher among inbred groups as compared to the unrelated families (P < 0.05) and higher mortality rates were observed among consanguineous families of all populations in comparison with the non-consanguineous family groups. Moreover, the prenatal and postnatal child mortality rates (i.e., U5MR and U18MR) have presented a persuasive increase with an upsurge in the homozygosity level. The mortality rate was found to be maximum among families with the highest value of coefficient of inbreeding (F). The selection intensity (SI) also showed inflations among families with respect to their increasing inbreeding coefficients. The greater values of lethal equivalents per gamete (LEs/gamete) were observed for autosomal inheritance in comparison with sex-linked inheritance.
Conclusion:
Our conclusive assessment brings out the deleterious consequence of consanguineous marriages on reproductive outcomes.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
References
Hall KS, Moreau C, Trussell J. Determinants of and disparities in reproductive health service use among adolescent and young adult women in the United States, 2002-2008. Am J Public Health 2012;102:359–67.
Bener A, Abdulrazzaq YM, al-Gazali LI, Micallef R, al-Khayat AI, Gaber T. Consanguinity and associated socio-demographic factors in the United Arab Emirates. Hum Hered 1996;46:256–64.
Afzal M. Consequences of consanguinity on cognitive behavior. Behav Genet 1988;18:583–94.
Badaruddoza, Afzal M. Inbreeding depression and intelligence quotient among north Indian children. Behav Genet 1993;23:343–347.
Badaruddoza, Afzal M, Akhtaruzzaman . Inbreeding and congenital heart diseases in a North Indian population. Clin Genet 1994;45:288–291.
Tadmouri GO, Nair P, Obeid T, Al Ali MT, Al Khaja N, Hamamy HA. Consanguinity and reproductive health among Arabs. Reprod Health 2009;6:17.
Fareed M, Afzal M. Estimating the inbreeding depression on cognitive behavior: a population based study of child cohort. PLoS One 2014;9:e109585.
Fareed M, Afzal M. Evidence of inbreeding depression on height, weight, and body mass index: a population-based child cohort study. Am J Hum Biol 2014;26:784–95.
Fareed M, Afzal M. Increased cardiovascular risks associated with familial inbreeding: a population-based study of adolescent cohort. Ann Epidemiol 2016;26:283–92.
Bittles AH, Black ML. Evolution in health and medicine Sackler colloquium: Consanguinity, human evolution, and complex diseases. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2010;107 Suppl 1:1779–86.
Black RE, Cousens S, Johnson HL, et al.; Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group of WHO and UNICEF. Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2008: a systematic analysis. Lancet 2010;375:1969–87.
Jha P, Kumar R, Vasa P, Dhingra N, Thiruchelvam D, Moineddin R. Low female-to-male sex ratio of children born in India: national survey of 1.1 million households. Lancet 2006;367:211–8.
Majumder N, Ram F. Explaining the role of proximate determinants on fertility decline among poor and non-poor in Asian countries. PLoS One 2015;10:e0115441.
Census of India. Estimates of Fertility Indicators. Vital Statistics of India. Government of India. 2013:48.
Dharmalingam A, Rajan S, Morgan SP. The determinants of low fertility in India. Demography 2014;51:1451–75.
D’Souza MS, Karkada SN, Somayaji G, Venkatesaperumal R. Women’s well-being and reproductive health in Indian mining community: need for empowerment. Reprod Health 2013;10:24.
Liu L, Oza S, Hogan D, et al. Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2000-13, with projections to inform post-2015 priorities: an updated systematic analysis. Lancet 2015;385:430–40.
UNICEF. Levels & Trends in Child Mortality. Report. Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. New York 2013:1–30.
Fuster V. Inbreeding pattern and reproductive success in a rural community from Galicia (Spain). J Biosoc Sci 2003;35:83–93.
Helgason A, Pálsson S, Gudbjartsson DF, Kristjánsson T, Stefánsson K. An association between the kinship and fertility of human couples. Science 2008;319:813–6.
Weller M, Santos S. A positive association between consanguinity and fertility in communities of ParaÃba, Northeast Brazil. Ann Hum Biol 2013;40:527–30.
Schull WJ, Neel JV. The effects of parental consanguinity and inbreeding in Hirado, Japan. V. Summary and interpretation. Am J Hum Genet 1972;24:425–53.
Ober C, Hyslop T, Hauck WW. Inbreeding effects on fertility in humans: evidence for reproductive compensation. Am J Hum Genet 1999;64:225–31.
Khlat M, Khoury M. Inbreeding and diseases: demographic, genetic, and epidemiologic perspectives. Epidemiol Rev 1991;13:28–41.
Saha N, Hamad RE, Mohamed S. Inbreeding effects on reproductive outcome in a Sudanese population. Hum Hered 1990;40:208–12.
Shawky RM, Elsayed SM, Zaki ME, El-din SMN, Kamal FM. Consanguinity and its relevance to clinical genetics. Egypt J Med Hum Genet 2013;14:157–164.
Hosseini-Chavoshi M, Abbasi-Shavazi MJ, Bittles AH. Consanguineous marriage, reproductive behaviour and postnatal mortality in contemporary Iran. Hum Hered 2014;77:16–25.
Bittles A. Consanguinity and its relevance to clinical genetics. Clin Genet 2001;60:89–98.
Crow JF. Some possibilities for measuring selection intensities in man. Hum Biol 1958;30:1–13.
Aarzoo SS, Afzal M. Reproductive fitness and selection intensity among Muslims of North India. J Hum Ecol 2006;19:107–112.
Shamseldin HE, Tulbah M, Kurdi W, et al. Identification of embryonic lethal genes in humans by autozygosity mapping and exome sequencing in consanguineous families. Genome Biol 2015;16:116.
Wright S. Coefficients of inbreeding and relationship. Am Nat 1922;330–338.
Chakraborty R, Chakravarti A. On consanguineous marriages and the genetic load. Hum Genet 1977;36:47–54.
Crow JF, Kimura M. An Introduction to Population Genetics Theory. Harper and Row, New York, USA 1970.
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to the Chairman, Department of Zoology, AMU, Aligarh for providing necessary laboratory facilities for this work. Thanks are due to the participants involved in this study, without whose cooperation the work could not have been completed.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Tables
(ZIP 24 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fareed, M., Kaisar Ahmad, M., Azeem Anwar, M. et al. Impact of consanguineous marriages and degrees of inbreeding on fertility, child mortality, secondary sex ratio, selection intensity, and genetic load: a cross-sectional study from Northern India. Pediatr Res 81, 18–26 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2016.177
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2016.177
This article is cited by
-
Marriage Market in Pakistan: Consanguinity, Educational Assortative Mating, and Fertility
Population Research and Policy Review (2025)
-
Assessment of inbreeding depression on morphometric traits among North Indian population cohorts
Discover Public Health (2024)
-
Nationwide survey on awareness of consanguinity and genetic diseases in Saudi Arabia: challenges and potential solutions to reduce the national healthcare burden
Human Genomics (2024)
-
Linkages between consanguinity, pregnancy outcomes and offspring mortality in twenty-first century India
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Impact of terrorism on child sex at birth: evidence from Pakistan
Empirical Economics (2024)
