The frequency of consanguineous marriages and their effects on offsprings in Tabriz city

Objectives: Too much diversity and ever increasing number of genetic disorders appear as a big challenge in coming future. One of the main sources of genetic disorders is the consanguineous marriages which are, unfortunately very common in our society. In order to prepare ourselves to accept the challenge, the first step is to get complete information of their prevalence and their risk factors.Patients and Methods: The study was made during 2003-2007 in Tabriz city of Iran.We selected 6000 families and a complete data was obtained on a questionnaire comprised of information regarding marital ages, number of pregnancies, type of delivery, ratio of consanguineous and non consanguineous marriages jobs of parents… etc and their effect on child malformations.Results: Consanguineous marriages of all types were related with increased congenital malformations (with ratio 43/1000 for consanguineous marriages and for non consanguineous marriages 28/1000). Mother age less than 18 and more than 35 particularly was accompanied with increased malformations while education of mother came out to be inversely related to congenital malformation.Conclusion: Increased stillbirths, consanguineous marriage and malformations, especially of musculoskeletal system require new planning on national level to control and aware people of the consequences of consanguineous marriages.Key Words: Consanguineous marriage, congenital malformation, trisomy 21, genetic diseas

Staple Food Fortification with Folic Acid and Iron and Gastrointestinal Cancers:Critical Appraisal of Long-Term National Fortification

The co-occurrence of wheat flour fortification with folic acid and iron and gastrointestinal cancer incidences were critically assessed in the East Azerbaijan province in Northwest of Iran. In an ecological design, overall gastrointestinal cancer rate ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated as primary outcome before (2004-2006) and after (2007-2015) the introduction of fortification. No consistent changes were observed in esophageal and gastric cancer, but the rate ratios of colorectal cancer increased significantly after fortification in the 35-54 years age group (women: 2.07, 95% CI: 1.79-2.49; men: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.33-1.89) and the 55-74 years age group (women 1.50, 95% CI: 1.27-1.76; men: 2.51, 95% CI: 2.13-2.95). The increased incidence of colorectal cancer was contemporary with long-term fortification; further investigation is required to establish the associations

Folic Acid Supplement Intake and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Women; A Case Control Study

Background: An ongoing controversy exists on the role of folic acid supplementation in colorectal cancer risk among epidemiological studies. Objective: To assess the association between maternal folic acid supplementation and colorectal cancer risk. Methods: A paired matched case control study of 405 subjects was performed, including women residing in 135 villages of East Azerbaijan, Iran. Per area, subjects were followed regularly in local healthcare centers, where health- and social-related information have been collected prospectively in face to face interviews by well-trained health workers. We extracted folic acid supplement intake, baseline characteristics, and confounders from healthcare records. The data for study participants were linked to national cancer registry repositories, from which we retrieved the data of 135 women diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 2005 to 2015. Two hundred seventy controls were individually matched with cases in terms of residing village, age, and gender. We applied multivariate conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Findings: There was no significant association between folic acid supplementation and colorectal cancer risk in those with history of folic acid intake compared to those with no history of intake (OR 0.95; 95% CI 0.59 to 1.53), in those with less than five years of folic acid (0.79; 0.45 to 1.39) or in those with ≥5 years intake (1.09; 0.52 to 2.26). This risk did not change after adjustment for covariates or further stratification. Conclusions: Maternal folic acid supplementation did not affect colorectal cancer risk in a population where supplemental folic acid is prescribed with regular intervals for women of child-bearing age