Heidari, F., Dastgiri, S., Akbari, R., Khamnian, Z., Khanlarzadeh, E., Baradaran, M., … & Tajaddini, N. (2014). Prevalence and risk factors of consanguineous marriage. European Journal of General Medicine, 11(4), 248-255. https://doi.org/10.15197/sabad.1.11.81

The authors stated that consanguineous marriage presents a global problem regarding several health-related and social adverse outcomes. In that study, they aimed to identify the prevalence and epidemiologic features of consanguineous marriage.

They carried out the case-control study at the premarital advisory centers in Tabriz city in the North-West of Iran.

The sample consisted of 1532 participants (766 couples), with 166 couples as the case group. The findings showed a one-year 13.80% occurrence rate of consanguineous marriage. After adjustment for other variables, age at marriage for both women and men and level of knowledge for both women and men were significantly predictive of consanguineous marriage.

The study identified several independent predictors of consanguineous marriage. It was shown that the frequency of consanguineous mating was still high. The authors concluded that special preventive interventions, such as educational programs, are necessary to address the problem.