Evaluation of Genetic Counseling for Cases referred to Genetic Unit, Pediatric Hospital, Ain Shams University

Abstract

he current study is a cross sectional study. It includes 250 couples presented to the Genetics Clinic, Pediatric Hospital, Ain Shams University for Genetic counseling during the period between January 2015 to December 2016. All couples included in the study were informed about the study and asked for their consent to participate. The mean age of the female partner was 29.20 years and the mean age of the male partner was 34.70. Positive consanguinity was found in 63% of the study group. Moreover, 1st cousin degree was documented in 41% of them. About half of the female and male partners raised in rural regions. However, almost two thirds (58.8%) of the couples settled in urban regions (mainly Cairo, Giza and Qalyubia) for the last 5 years. In the current study, we tried to get the socioeconomic status of the patients through indirect questions as people usually refuse to inform about the actual income. The majority of the couples (92.4%) are classified to be of average socioeconomic status.

The 250 couples included in the current study were divided into 4 groups according to the timing of the genetic counseling: - Group I: -Pre-marital group “asking for genetic counseling before getting married”, 8 couples constituting 3.2%% of the whole study group Group II: - Repeated miscarriage group “asking for genetic counseling before the next pregnancy because of previous