The Prevalence of Consanguineous Marriages and Affecting Factors in Turkey: A National Survey

Abstract

This study was carried out by the Turkish Republic Ministry of Health to determine the prevalence of consanguineous marriage and its correlates with socio-demographic and obstetric risk factors in women in Turkey. The cross-sectional, national-level study was carried out from October to December 2013. The study population was composed of women between the ages of 15 and 65 years living in Turkey. The sample size was calculated as 9290 houses within Turkey's 81 provinces so as to improve the Turkish rural-urban expectations by means of systematic stack sampling according to the Turkish Statistical Institute's address-based vital statistics system. The target sample size was 6364, but only eligible 4913 women, who had been married, were included in the study. The consanguineous marriage frequency in the sample was found to be 18.5%, and of these 57.8% were first cousin marriages. Women living in an extended family and whose education level and first marriage ages were low, and whose perceived economic status was poor, had higher frequencies of consanguineous marriage (p<0.001). Consanguineous marriage frequencies were higher (p<0.001) for women who had spontaneous abortions and stillbirths or who had given birth to infants with a congenital abnormality. In this context, it is important to develop national policies and strategies to prevent consanguineous marriages in Turkey.

Causes of Blindness and Moderate-Severe Visual Impairment in Niğde, Central Anatolia, Turkey

“…We think that this is due to the high rate of consanguineous marriages in Turkey, which causes an increase in the prevalence of rare recessive diseases (13)(14)(15). It has been reported that the consanguineous marriage frequency was 18.5%, and of these, 57.8% were first cousin marriages in Turkey (16). Similar to our results, another study conducted in the Aegean region of Turkey also reported that the leading cause of low vision and blindness was retinal dystrophy in the 18-50-year age group (17).…”

Clinical Diagnosis, Biochemical Findings, Genetics and Incidence of Zellweger Syndrome

“…However, a general relationship appears to exist among genotype, cellular phenotype (i.e., importation of peroxisomal matrix proteins), and clinical phenotype (24). No comprehensive PEX molecular genetic testing is available in Turkey; we thus lack data on phenotype/genotype correlations.…”

A CARD9 Founder Mutation Disrupts NF-κB Signaling by Inhibiting BCL10 and MALT1 Recruitment and Signalosome Formation

“…However, other mutations could be prevalent in that same population, since at least three patients of Turkish origin (though not precisely defined from which region) have been described with a Q295 * nonsense mutation (exon 6) and a clinical presentation similar to the patients described in this manuscript ( 29 , 30 ). Targeted resequencing of the R70W mutation in 68 healthy Turkish individuals from the Istanbul region (results not shown) showed that the allele was absent there, suggesting that it may be geographically confined to the rural provinces of Afyonkarahisar and Eskişehir, where a tradition of consanguineous marriages promotes passing on of recessive disease ( 31 ). At this moment, we have no evidence that the R70W CARD9 mutation would provide any beneficial traits to the population, and its presence could thus be a direct consequence of endogamy within a small and genetically homogenous population, where a detrimental recessive allele became common through the founder effect ( 32 , 33 ).…”