Prevalence of thalassemia among children conceived as a result of cousin marriages

Background and Aims; Thalassemia is widely prevalent Genetic Disorder in Pakistan. There is a positive association between Cousin Marriages and Thalassemia Because of accumulation of carrier in Thalassemia prevalent families. The aim of our study is assessing that whether cousin marriage is risk factor for thalassemia and awareness of importance of screening test among patients.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional descriptive study which was conducted in Thalassemia Center near Ganga-raam Hospital, Lahore. Total 117 patients were interviewed after taking verbal consent using self-administered, pre-tested questionnaire. Patients were selected randomly. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20. The duration of study was 8 months.
Results: Majority of patients were of age 4-13 years, 56.1% were below poverty line. 81.2% of total 95 thalassemic subject’s parents have cousin marriage. Thalassemia is more prevalent in males 63.2 %( 74 patients) than that of females36.8 %( 43 patients).The prevalence in 1st degree cousin is 73.5%, 2nd degree 6.8%, 3rd degree cousin is .9% and 18.8% subjects are unrelated.82.1% of subjects have hemoglobin level between 5-8 mg/dl. 96.6% parents of thalassemic patients are unaware about that they are thalassemic carrier.
Conclusion: The prevalence of Thalassemia among cousin marriage is 81.2%.