Journal of General Practice

Frequency of Birth Defects and its Relationship to Parents Having Interfamily Marriages at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Tufail Soomro, Shiyam Sunder Tikmani

Background: Inter family cousin marriages carries a risk of increased birth defects. The exact contribution of interfamily to birth defects risk is controversial. The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of birth defects in in relation to interfamily or outside family marriages. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Civil hospital Sukkur from 9th November 2013 to 13th December 2015. Mothers giving birth to babies married in interfamily or outside family with their consent obtained were included in the study. Mothers not giving consent for study and having any known major illnesses were excluded from this study. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. Results: The mean age of enrolled participants is 26.72 ± 7.07 years, the mean years of marriage was 5.95 ± 6 years and 49.4% were residents of urban area. Overall 89.9% were Muslims, 8.4% Christians and 2.8% Hindus, 60.7% infant had gestational age of <37 weeks. Overall 11.4% of newborns have congenital malformations. Frequency of congenital malformations among interfamily marriages was 15.6% compared to outside family marriages accounted for 3.7% cases (p=0.021). Conclusion: It was concluded from this study that congenital malformations are common among participants of interfamily marriages.