Consanguinity Associated with Child and Adult Mor tality in 24 Asian and Afr ican Countr ies, an Ecological Study

Background : Although numerous studies have round deleterious effects of inbreeding on childhood and pre-reproductive mortality, one question remains inadequately addressed: Dose inbreeding lead to increased chi ldhood mortality rates in countries with high level of consanguinity? Methods: To evaluate the public health impact of inbreeding on offspring mortali ty, the association between mean of inbreeding coeffi cient (alfa) and sex specific child and adult mortal ity rates in 24 countries from Asia and Africa was analyzed. Results: Statist ical analysis showed that countries with relatively higher rates of consanguineous marriages have higher mortality rates than the countries with lower consanguinity rates. Iso, countries with relatively higher GOP per capita have lower mortality rates. After controlling the GOP per capita, significant positive correlations between alfa andchild (Female: r=0,4355, dt= 21, P=0 .038; Male: r=0.3991, df=21, P=0.059) mortality rates were observed. There was no significant correlation between alfa and adult (Female: r=0.2977, df=2 1, P=O.J68; Male: r=0.2207, df=2 1, P=0.312) mortality rates, after controlling for GOP percapita . Conclusion : It is coneluded that consangu inity influences ehild deaths rate independent of the GOP per capita and that a large proportion of deaths could be attributed to inbreeding in several countries due to high frequencies or consanguinity.