Screening for obesity in the offspring of first-cousin consanguineous couples : a phase-I study in Saudi Arabia

الملخص EN

Consanguineous or cousin marriages are very common in Saudi Arabia.

However, owing to limited studies and insufficient knowledge about genetic diseases/disorders, many couples are unaware of the increased health risks for their offspring.

Among the inherited and complex diseases from parents’ consanguinity, obesity is common; therefore, we examined the prevalence of obesity in the offspring of first-cousin consanguineous couples in Saudi Arabia.

In this questionnaire-based study, 657 individuals (mean age = 18.7 ± 10.2 years; age range = 2–65 years) who were residing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia participated.

Among them, almost 90% were native Saudis.

Participants mean body mass index (BMI) was 24.5 ± 9.1 kg/m2.

Sex- stratified demographic details confirmed a significant association between age and BMI (p < .001).

We confirmed that adolescents and adults were more prone to develop obesity.

Adults and non-Saudi participants were three times more likely to develop obesity if they had first-cousin consanguineous parents than those who did not.

Of the 30% of participants who were obese, 100 will be selected for Phase II, in which we plan to perform exome sequencing.