Bittles A H, Mason W M, Greene J, Rao N A
King's College, University of London.
Science. 1991 May 10;252(5007):789-94. doi: 10.1126/science.2028254.
In many regions of Asia and Africa, consanguineous marriages currently account for approximately 20 to 50% of all unions, and preliminary observations indicate that migrants from these areas continue to contract marriages with close relatives when resident in North America and Western Europe. Consanguinity is associated with increased gross fertility, due at least in part to younger maternal age at first livebirth. Morbidity and mortality also may be elevated, resulting in comparable numbers of surviving offspring in consanguineous and nonconsanguineous families. With advances in medicine and public health, genetic disorders will account for an increased proportion of disease worldwide. Predictably, this burden will fall more heavily on countries and communities in which consanguinity is strongly favored, as the result of the expression of deleterious recessive genes. However, studies conducted in such populations indicate that the adverse effects associated with inbreeding are experienced by a minority of families.
在亚洲和非洲的许多地区，近亲婚姻目前约占所有婚姻的20%至50%，初步观察表明，来自这些地区的移民在北美和西欧居住时仍会与近亲结婚。近亲结婚与总生育率增加有关，这至少部分归因于首次生育时母亲年龄较小。发病率和死亡率也可能升高，导致近亲家庭和非近亲家庭的存活后代数量相当。随着医学和公共卫生的进步，遗传疾病在全球疾病中所占比例将增加。可以预见的是，由于有害隐性基因的表达，这种负担将更沉重地落在强烈支持近亲结婚的国家和社区。然而，在此类人群中进行的研究表明，少数家庭会经历与近亲繁殖相关的不利影响。
