A long-term follow up of premarital counseling in the Israeli Arab population

Abstract

A follow up study of 168 Arab counselees that received premarital genetic counseling between 2001 and 2009, mostly since they planned to marry with a relative, was performed in 2013. Among the 156 cases in which the counselee married, 30 changed their marital plans (19.2 %). Those who changed their marital plans were more often Muslim Arabs that came for counseling since they were related in particular first cousins. Among the 126 counselee that married as planned, 66 were interviewed. From these interviews, it appears that many of the counselees that were related as first cousins or closer came to premarital genetic counseling in order to decide whether to marry. Most of the couples interviewed followed the recommendations concerning the use of folic acid and genetic tests. Among the 53 consanguineous couples interviewed, 49 women had 118 children. Among these 118 children, 8 (6.8 %) were born with a severe disease in 8 different families. This rate of malformations/genetic diseases is similar to the one observed for consanguineous couples from the general Arab population in the region, suggesting therefore that the premarital counseling and the adherence to the recommendations did not change the final risk to the counselees.