Frequency of consanguineous marriage in Tehran and some related factors

Introduction: Consanguineous marriage is an important type of marriage in the world includingIran. Familial marriage mean's marriage between a man and woman who has at least one commongrandfather. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of consanguineous marriage andsome related factors in Tehran (2008).Material and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional with descriptive and analytic features. 180couples who intend to marriage and come to heath care centers of Tehran's (summer 2008) medicaluniversities were randomly assessed with an author's built questionnaire.Results: Means age of persons with consanguineous marriage and non-consanguineous marriagewere 24.7 ± 4.2 years and 25.6 ± 4 years, respectively. The level of knowledge of majority of personsabout the effects of consanguineous marriage was intermediate and lower. Most of people believedthat genetic consult is very necessary. Frequency of consanguineous marriage was 17.7%. Incidenceof familial marriage has no significant relationship with age, sex and education of persons (P>0.05),but there was significant relationship between occurrence of familial marriage and history of this typeof marriage in their parent, family and friends (P<0.002).Conclusion: Although the majority of persons in this study has not a proper level of knowledgeabout the effects of consanguineous marriage and thus need genetic consult, but their friends were themost important reference of their information about familial marriage and it’s consequences. Thisreveals that communications and genetic consulters have a weak role in giving information to people.