Children of teenage mothers, women and men over 40, and partners with a large age difference, more often suffer from autism spectrum disorders – reports Molecular Psychiatry.
An international study conducted in Denmark, Israel, Norway, Sweden and Australia on a group of over 5,5 million children (approx. 30 thousand diagnosed with autism) born in 1985-2004 showed that the age of parents is a significant risk factor for developing disorders on the autism spectrum.
A team of scientists funded by the American organization Autism Speaks has determined that the probability of developing autism is 28 percent. higher in children who were conceived by men over the age of 40, and by 66 percent. higher for fathers over 50 than for men deciding to have children at the age of 20.
It turns out that the advanced or too young age of mothers is also unfavorable. Women who give birth after the age of 40 must take into account a 15% increase in the risk of developing autism among their children compared with women who give birth in their twenties. In teenage mothers, the risk is 18 percent. bigger.
Children, whose parents have a large age difference, are also more likely to suffer from autism. The riskiest combination is a father aged 35-44 and a mother 10 or more years younger. However, the likelihood of autism is also greater if a woman in her 30s decides to have a child with a man much younger than her.
The higher risk of autism in children for fathers over 50 is associated with genetic mutations in sperm. It is not known why the advanced age of the mother or the large age difference between mother and father also correlate with an increased likelihood of developing the disease.
Although parental age is an important risk factor when it comes to developing autism, we must remember that most children born to older or younger parents develop quite normally, concludes the study co-author Dr. Sven Sandin of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.