TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of consanguineous marriage on reproductive behaviour, adverse pregnancy outcomes and offspring mortality in Oman
AU - Islam, M. Mazharul
N1 - Funding Information:
Declaration of interest: The 2000 ONHS was sponsored by the Ministry of Health, Government Oman, with the technical support of the UN organizations such as UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and the UN Statistics division. The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
PY - 2013/5
Y1 - 2013/5
N2 - Background: The long tradition of high prevalence of consanguineous marriages in Omani society may have ramifications for reproductive behaviour and health of offspring. Aim: To examine the relevance of consanguinity to reproductive behaviour, adverse pregnancy outcome and offspring mortality in Oman. Subjects and methods: The data analysed came from the 2000 Oman National Health Survey. Selected indicators that are related to reproductive behaviour, adverse pregnancy outcome and offspring mortality were considered as explanatory variables. Various statistical methods and tests were used for data analysis. Results: Consanguineous marriage was found to be associated with lower age at first birth, higher preference for larger family size, lower level of husband-wife communication about use of family planning methods and lower rate of contraceptive use. Although bivariate analysis showed elevated fertility and childhood mortality among the women with consanguineous marriage, after controlling for relevant socio-demographic factors in multivariate analysis, fertility, childhood mortality and foetal loss showed no significant association with consanguinity in Oman. Conclusion: Consanguinity plays an important role in determining some of the aspects of reproduction and health of newborns, but did not show any detrimental effects on fertility and offspring mortality. The high level of consanguinity and its relevance to reproduction in Oman need to be considered in its public health strategy in a culturally acceptable manner.
AB - Background: The long tradition of high prevalence of consanguineous marriages in Omani society may have ramifications for reproductive behaviour and health of offspring. Aim: To examine the relevance of consanguinity to reproductive behaviour, adverse pregnancy outcome and offspring mortality in Oman. Subjects and methods: The data analysed came from the 2000 Oman National Health Survey. Selected indicators that are related to reproductive behaviour, adverse pregnancy outcome and offspring mortality were considered as explanatory variables. Various statistical methods and tests were used for data analysis. Results: Consanguineous marriage was found to be associated with lower age at first birth, higher preference for larger family size, lower level of husband-wife communication about use of family planning methods and lower rate of contraceptive use. Although bivariate analysis showed elevated fertility and childhood mortality among the women with consanguineous marriage, after controlling for relevant socio-demographic factors in multivariate analysis, fertility, childhood mortality and foetal loss showed no significant association with consanguinity in Oman. Conclusion: Consanguinity plays an important role in determining some of the aspects of reproduction and health of newborns, but did not show any detrimental effects on fertility and offspring mortality. The high level of consanguinity and its relevance to reproduction in Oman need to be considered in its public health strategy in a culturally acceptable manner.
KW - Consanguinity
KW - First cousin marriage
KW - Foetal loss
KW - Marriage
KW - Oman
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U2 - 10.3109/03014460.2012.760649
DO - 10.3109/03014460.2012.760649
M3 - Article
C2 - 23384045
AN - SCOPUS:84877687729
SN - 0301-4460
VL - 40
SP - 243
EP - 255
JO - Annals of Human Biology
JF - Annals of Human Biology
IS - 3
ER -