Genetic Counseling in Central Iran: Lack of Public Awareness about Genetic Diseases?

Objective: The prevalence of consanguineous marriage in Middle East Countries is higher than the rest of the word. In Iran, consanguineous marriages have a frequency between 15.9%- 47%, with the highest in Eastern provinces. To determine prevalence of consanguineous marriage, kind of referral, prevalence of genetic disorders, and reasons of the referral in couples referred to genetic centers in central Iran. Methods: 2141 couples referred from 2008 to 2013 to genetic centers in central Iran fill out a simple questionnaire designed for this study. Results: Our findings indicated that premarital, preconception, prenatal and postnatal counseling had the frequency of 46.8%, 33.9%, 9.6% and 9.6%. At least a genetic disease was diagnosed in 75.3% of the clients. Mental retardation has the highest frequency of 49% among the diseases in the pedigrees. Conclusion: The low frequency of the referrals for premarital counseling and high frequency of diseases in the couples' pedigree indicate the poor awareness of the residents in this part of Iran of the genetic centers services. There is a great need for planning educational programs to inform young people about the potential threats of consanguineous marriage and also the merging services in genetics for diagnosis of inherited diseases.