Biosocial perspective of consanguineous marriages in rural and urban Swat, Pakistan
Wahab, A.; Ahmad, M.
Journal of Biosocial Science 28(3): 305-313
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-9320 PMID: 8698710 DOI: 10.1017/s0021932000022379Document Number: 264409
Consanguineous marriages continue to be preferred in many major human populations. The subsequent inbreeding, however, leads to increased homozygosity which, in turn, leads to an increased risk of premature morbidity and mortality among offspring. The authors studied consanguineous marriages in one rural and one urban population in Swat, Pakistan, via a 1986 random survey sample of married couples. The proportion of sampled marriages to the total estimated marriages in the population is 0.062. There has been a significant increase in the incidence of consanguineous marriages over the years. 37.13% of marriages in the rural population and 31.11% in the urban population were consanguineous. Mean inbreeding coefficients were calculated to be 0.0168 and 0.0162, respectively. The most frequent type of marriage in both samples was between first cousins, predominated by those involving the father's brother's daughter. The mean inbreeding coefficient was higher for higher socioeconomic groups in both samples. Differences were also found by ethnic and educational group. A significantly higher incidence of morbidity was observed among the offspring of consanguineous marriages. The incidence of premature mortality was, however, significantly higher only in the offspring of first cousin marriages.