ESTIMATING RISKS FOR OFFSPRING OF FIRST-COUSIN MATINGS - APPROACH

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 28  (5) , 522-526
Abstract
Effects of parental consanguinity on morbidity and mortality can be estimated from observations on families ascertained through a child with a disease or defect, provided that appropriate corrections are made for the ascertainment bias. The risk of 1st-cousin parents having a child with a recessively inherited disease appears to be low (< 1%). The increased infant mortality associated with inbreeding (upon which calculations of lethal equivalents are based) may result in part from environmental differences between consanguineous and nonconsanguineous matings, which may be changing. Thus estimates of the number of lethal equivalents in a population can change as the environment changes.