Attitude towards Consanguineous Marriages in Ilam Province, Iran

In Ilam province (west Iran) about 45 percent of marriages are consanguineous marriages. Consanguinity is an important risk factor in genetic diseases. Positive attitude toward consanguinity has very important impact on frequency of consanguineous marriages. The study aimed to explore the attitudes towards consanguineous marriage and its associations with some socio-demographic characteristics in a sample of Iranian adults living in Ilam province. It was a survey study using a self-administered questionnaire which distributed by Instagram. A key question was used for measuring attitude towards supporting consanguineous marriage in Iran, in the form of "Are you a supporter of consanguineous marriages in Iran?" with the answer of "yes" or "no". A total of 476 participants which completed the questionnaire were included in the study. In order to study the correlation of gender, place of living, marital status, economic status, educational level and parental consanguineous marriages with the positive attitude toward consanguinity, we used multivariable logistic regression analysis. Our present results indicated that males versus females, married versus unmarried, and participants whom were offspring of consanguineous marriages versus to whom that their parents had non-consanguineous marriages had significantly more positive attitude towards consanguinity.