CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES AMONG IRANIAN MANDAEANS LIVING IN SOUTH-WEST IRAN

摘要

Several studies have indicated that consanguineous marriages(unions between biologically related persons) are associated with increased riskof autosomal recessive diseases and several multifactorial traits. Mandaeansare a closed ethno-religious community living in areas of southern Iraq andIran (Khuzestan Province). There are currently no data on the prevalence ofconsanguineous marriages among Mandaeans. The present study was carriedout in 2016 to determine the prevalence of consanguinity among IranianMandaeans living in Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran. A total of137 couples (urban areas: 79 couples; rural areas: 58 couples) were includedin the study. Information on the consanguineous marriages of the subjects wascollected through direct interviews. Marriages were classified by the degree ofrelationship between couples as double first cousins, first cousins, first cousinonce removed, second cousins and unrelated marriages. The coefficient ofinbreeding (F) was calculated for each couple and the mean coefficient ofinbreeding (α) estimated for the population, stratified by rural and urbanareas. The overall frequency of consanguinity was found to be 50.7% in urbanand 86.2% in rural areas. There was a significant difference between rural andurban areas in types of marriages (χ~2=24.8, df=4, p<0.001) and firstcousin marriages (51.8%) were the most common type. The overall α-valuewas estimated to be 0.0363 for the Iranian Mandaean population.