title: The effect of consanguinity on pregnancy outcome in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: A simple random sample of 4498 Saudi pregnant women was analysed to study the effect of consanguinity on pregnancy outcome. The rate of consanguinity was found to be 54.3% which comprised 31.4% of first cousins and 22.9% of other relatives. The average proportion of outcome was higher and over 50% within the consanguinous marriages in all pregnancy outcome except prematurity and low birth weights. In general, more unfavourable outcomes occurred among consanguinous than non-consanguinous marriages. Perinatal, infant and neonatal deaths were the most deleterious outcomes among related marriages with 62%, 60.3% and 57.9% respectively. The differences between total consanguinity and unrelated marriages in the infant and perinatal death categories were significant (P = 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, CAMS, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Anokute
mesh_terms: D003241:Consanguinity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology