Children whose parents are cousins are more likely to suffer from asthma, diabetes and other severe diseases, a study has found. More than half of all marriages among Qataris are between cousins.
Fifty-four per cent of marriages among Qataris are consanguineous unions, according to the Department of Statistics and Epidemiology at Hamad Medical Corporation, which has published the results of a sample study.
A total of 1,515 Qatari women aged 15 and older took part in the survey. The study conducted by World Health Organisation adviser Professor Abdulbari Bener was alarming with regard to the consequences of consanguineous marriages on children, who are more exposed to asthma, mental retardation, epilepsy and diabetes.
Education as well as parental consanguinity was found to be a strong predictor of such unions. Non-consanguineously married respondents had an average two more years of formal schooling.
Consequences
Some of the findings of the survey
- Mental retardation was reported in 27 children born to consanguineous couples compared with 3 from non-consanguineous unions. Epilepsy affected 39 children from consanguineous marriages compared with 6 from other marriages.
- A total of 161 children born to consanguineous couples suffer from asthma compared with 84 children from non-consanguineous unions.
- In the case of diabetes mellitus, the disease affected 40 children from consanguineous couples while only 17 from the other group were affected. The study found that first-cousin marriages were the most common type of consanguineous marriages.
