Dad's Age Affects Autism Risk
Posted Tuesday, September 5, 2006
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Dad’s Age Affects Autism Risk
Older maternal age has been linked to an increased risk of developmental problems in children, but researchers say few studies have looked specifically at the role of the father’s age in autism risk.
In this study, researchers looked at more than 300,000 17-year-olds assessed medically and psychologically by the military draft board in Israel during the 1980s. They checked to see whether the age of the father contributed to the risk of autism in the young men and women.
Information on the age of the mother was also available for more than 100,000 of the 17-year-olds.
The results showed that advancing age among the fathers was associated with an increased risk of autism, even after adjusting for the year the teens were born, their socioeconomic status, and the age of their mother.
Overall, the risk of autism was 5.75 times greater among children born to men aged 40 to 49, compared with those born to men under 30.
Age among mothers was not associated with autism after factoring in the effect of the father’s age.
Researcher Abraham Reichenberg, PhD, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and colleagues say more work is needed to confirm these results.
One possible explanation for the link may be spontaneous mutations in sperm-producing cells or alterations in gene expression associated with advancing age among fathers, the researchers say.
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