Prevalence and Outcome of Consanguineous Marriage in A Selected Community Area

Marriage is an institution which admits men and women to family life is a stable relationship in which a man and a woman are socially permitted to have children implying the right to sexual relation. A descriptive co-relational research design was used to assess the prevalence and outcome of consanguineous marriage at Ayanambakam with a sample size of 200 (93 were cases and 107 were control) who met the inclusion criteria using a systematic random sampling technique. The study findings revealed that consanguineous marriage was highly prevalent in selected community. Consanguineous marriage was also associated with maternal outcome such as APH, PPH, abortion, still birth and fetal outcome such as pre-term, congenital anomaly, academic performance. It highlights the need for creating awareness among public by the nurses using strategies such as mass health education programmes adopting various methods including role play, exhibition, involving media and discussion. Nurses being key personnel in dealing with health and illness, play a vital role in creating awareness among public about the consequences of consanguineous marriage.