Congenital anomalies in the Irish traveller community.

A national population based study of the health of Irish travellers has been carried out. The prevalence of congenital anomalies in this population has been compared to the general population in the Eastern Health Board region. The prevalence of congenital anomalies in travellers was 5.5%, compared to 2.9% in the Eastern Health region, an odds ratio of 1.95. When metabolic conditions were excluded there were no significant difference. There was a trend, not reaching statistical significance, for the prevalence of congenital anomalies among travellers to be greater in offsprings of first cousin marriages (6.5%) then in those born to unrelated parents (3.8%), on odds ratio of 1.73. A balance needs to be sought between being sensitive to cultural reasons for consanguinity and giving information to communities about the negative health consequences of certain cultural practices.