Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 10 May 1991:
Vol. 252. no. 5007, pp. 789 - 794
DOI: 10.1126/science.2028254
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 252, Issue 5007, 789-794
Copyright © 1991 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Reproductive behavior and health in consanguineous marriages

AH Bittles, WM Mason, J Greene, and NA Rao

King's College, University of London.

In many regions of Asia and Africa, consanguineous marriages currently account for approximately 20 to 50% of all unions, and preliminary observations indicate that migrants from these areas continue to contract marriages with close relatives when resident in North America and Western Europe. Consanguinity is associated with increased gross fertility, due at least in part to younger maternal age at first livebirth. Morbidity and mortality also may be elevated, resulting in comparable numbers of surviving offspring in consanguineous and nonconsanguineous families. With advances in medicine and public health, genetic disorders will account for an increased proportion of disease worldwide. Predictably, this burden will fall more heavily on countries and communities in which consanguinity is strongly favored, as the result of the expression of deleterious recessive genes. However, studies conducted in such populations indicate that the adverse effects associated with inbreeding are experienced by a minority of families.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The incest taboo?: A reconsideration of Westermarck.
G. C. Leavitt (2007)
Anthropological Theory 7, 393-419
   Abstract »    PDF »
Effects of genome-wide heterozygosity on a range of biomedically relevant human quantitative traits.
H. Campbell, A. D. Carothers, I. Rudan, C. Hayward, Z. Biloglav, L. Barac, M. Pericic, B. Janicijevic, N. Smolej-Narancic, O. Polasek, et al. (2007)
Hum. Mol. Genet. 16, 233-241
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Upright Generations of the Future: Tradition and Medicalization in Community Genetics.
A. E. Raz and M. Atar (2004)
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 33, 296-322
   Abstract »    PDF »
Inbreeding and risk of late onset complex disease.
I Rudan, D Rudan, H Campbell, A Carothers, A Wright, N Smolej-Narancic, B Janicijevic, L Jin, R Chakraborty, R Deka, et al. (2003)
J. Med. Genet. 40, 925-932
   Full Text »
Inbreeding and the Genetic Complexity of Human Hypertension.
I. Rudan, N. Smolej-Narancic, H. Campbell, A. Carothers, A. Wright, B. Janicijevic, and P. Rudan (2003)
Genetics 163, 1011-1021
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Arrest of human oocytes during meiosis I in two sisters of consanguineous parents: first evidence for an autosomal recessive trait in human infertility: Case report.
H. Schmiady and H. Neitzel (2002)
Hum. Reprod. 17, 2556-2559
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Consanguineous Marriage and Marital Adjustment in Turkey.
H. Flsloglu (2001)
The Family Journal 9, 215-222
   Abstract »    PDF »
Causes of childhood blindness in the People's Republic of China: results from 1131 blind school students in 18 provinces.
S J Hornby, Y Xiao, C E Gilbert, A Foster, X Wang, X Liang, H Jing, L Wang, W Min, Y Shi, et al. (1999)
Br. J. Ophthalmol. 83, 929-932
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Consanguineous Matings in an Israeli-Arab Community.
L. Jaber, J. E. Bailey-Wilson, M. Haj-Yehia, J. Hernandez, and M. Shohat (1994)
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 148, 412-415
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)