“…Frequency of consanguineous marriages was higher among parents of offspring with congenital malformations compared with the figures for the general population in all studies reported among Arabs, including in the UAE [ 28 , 35 - 37 ], Kuwait [ 29 ], Oman [ 30 , 38 , 39 ], Iraq [ 40 , 41 ], Jordan [ 42 , 43 ], Egypt [ 44 ], Lebanon [ 4 , 45 ], Tunisia [ 46 ], Arabs in Jerusalem [ 33 ], and Saudi Arabia [ 47 ]. After controlling for confounders, first cousin consanguinity remained significantly associated with an increased risk of congenital heart defects (CHD), where infants born to consanguineous parents had a higher risk of having a CHD diagnosed at birth compared to those born to unrelated parents in Lebanon [ 48 , 49 ], Saudi Arabia [ 47 , 50 , 51 ], Egypt [ 52 ], and Arabs in Israel [ 53 ].…”