High consanguinity rate in Hungarian gipsy communities.

Abstract

Reproductive data of 1074 gipsy women between 13 and 52 years with one or more children were obtained by gipsy social workers through anonymous personal interview confirmed by available official documents. Socioeconomic status of five different gipsy communities studied is much lower than the Hungarian average. Their reproductive activity is also different, e.g., first births occur in much younger age. The high endogamy was proved by the gipsy origin of male partners in 90% of couples. The occurrence of first cousin couples was 16 times higher than that of the Hungarian population at large, however, its range was wide from 0% to 21% in different regions studied.