Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 9, 2026

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Long-Term Health Impacts of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection on Offspring
Published on: May 17, 2024
Consanguineous marriage, prepregnancy maternal characteristics and stillbirth risk: a population-based case-control
Siavash Maghsoudlou1,2, Sven Cnattingius1, Mohsen Aarabi3
1Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Introduction:
Consanguineous marriage is associated with increased risks for congenital anomalies, low birthweight, and other adverse perinatal outcomes. In this population-based, case-control study we investigated the association between consanguineous marriage (first-cousin marriage) and stillbirth risk, using prospectively collected information from prepregnancy visits.
Material And Methods:
From 2007 to 2009, we identified 283 stillbirths (cases) and 2088 randomly selected live control births through prepregnancy visits in rural Golestan, Iran. The associations between consanguinity and prepregnancy maternal characteristics and stillbirth risk were examined using multivariate logistic regression.
Results:
The rate of consanguineous marriage was 19.4% among cases and 13.6% among controls. Consanguinity was associated with increased stillbirth risk [odds ratio (OR) 1.53; 95% CI 1.10-2.14]. The association was significantly increased for preterm stillbirth (< 37 gestational weeks) (OR 2.43; 95% CI 1.46-4.04) but not for term stillbirth (≥ 37 weeks) (OR 1.14; 95% CI 0.75-1.74). Low and high maternal age, underweight, obesity, nulliparity, a history of infertility or miscarriage, previous obstetric complications (preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and stillbirth in previous pregnancies) were also associated with increased stillbirth risks.
Conclusions:
Consanguineous marriage is associated with increased risk of stillbirth, particularly preterm stillbirth. Findings for other maternal risk factors for stillbirth in rural Iran are consistent with previously reported findings from high-income countries.
More Related Videos
09:52Accurate and Simple Evaluation of Vascular Anastomoses in Monochorionic Placenta using Colored Dye
Published on: September 5, 2011
11:54Microsatellite DNA Genotyping and Flow Cytometry Ploidy Analyses of Formalin-fixed Paraffin-embedded Hydatidiform Molar Tissues
Published on: October 20, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Confounding in Epidemiological Studies
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
Relative Risk
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...
Hypothesis Test for Test of Independence
H0: The two variables (factors)...