Premarital counselling: an experience from Bahrain

Abstract

The present study was conducted to analyse data of the first 500 clients who voluntarily attended premarital counselling during 1993-1994. It was found that 74.1% of clients were not related to their partner, 23.2% were first cousins and 1.5% were second cousins; the rest were distant relatives. Sickle-cell disease was found in 1.6% of clients, sickle-cell trait in 13.0%, beta-thalassaemia trait in 2.0% and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in 26.0%. Of the couples attending counselling, 8.1% were found to be at risk of having affected offspring. The consanguinity rate among the couples at risk was 15.4%