The influence of consanguineous marriage on infant and child mortality among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of mortality differences associated with consanguineous marriage among Palestinians in the Middle East.
METHODS: The data came from five surveys of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, conducted during the period 1995-2000. Infant and child mortality was estimated for the offspring of consanguineous and non-consanguineous parents using the synthetic cohort method.
RESULTS: The data showed an increase in infant mortality of 15.0 additional deaths per 1,000 births among the offspring of first cousins, and a corresponding increase of 6.1 deaths per 1,000 for the progeny of parents from the same patrilineal clan.
CONCLUSION: In populations where marriage within kin groups is common, both first cousin marriage and intra-group marriage carries an added risk of infant and child mortality.