title: Evidence of inbreeding depression on height, weight, and body mass index: a population-based child cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study was aimed to estimate the effect of inbreeding on height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) in comparison with non-inbred children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort study was conducted during April 2013 through July 2013 in Jammu (North India) and a total of 1,270 children (5-15 years of age) were selected in a random way both from inbred and non-inbred families of five Muslim populations. The height and weight was measured using standard methods and the BMI categories were employed as adapted by World Health Organization (WHO). Family pedigrees were drawn to access the family history and children's inbred status in terms of coefficient of inbreeding (F).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children of inbred families showed decline in mean value for height, weight, and BMI (P < 0.0001). The mean difference (95% confidence interval) in height -7.318 (5.827-8.809), weight -6.590 (5.100-8.081) and BMI -2.133 (0.6419-3.624) for inbred as compared with non-inbred children were found to be significant (P < 0.001). We observed an increase in the difference in mean values for height, weight and BMI with the increase of inbreeding coefficient and these were statistically significant (P < 0.05, using post hoc tests). The frequency of underweight children was found to be higher among individuals in the inbred category (<18.5 kg/m(2)  = 47.31%) as compared with the non-inbred category (<18.5 kg/m(2)  = 13.41%) and subsequent depression was found among the inbred children due to an increase of inbreeding coefficient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide the evidence of inbreeding depression on height, weight, and BMI being important in context of child health.
authors.affiliation: Human Genetics and Toxicology Laboratory, Section of Genetics, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Mohd
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fareed
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Afzal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003241:Consanguinity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male