A new study that analyzed more than 5 million births found that a woman’s chance of having an autistic child increases as she gets older. On the contrary, the risk might just be less for older dads as indicated in earlier studies. Even though a father’s age can add to the risk, the maternal age is where the majority of the risk is found, according to researcher Janie Shelton, of the University of California at Davis.
It was found that mothers who were older than 40 were almost 50% more likely to have an autistic child than those who were in their 20s. The risk for 40 and older fathers was 36% higher than for men in their 20s.
This said, one of the experts said that the study shows that the risk of a woman over age 40 having a child with autism was still less than 4 in 1000.
The new research indicates that the father’s age seems to make the most impact when they pair up with young mothers. For children who had mothers younger than 25, autism was twice as common if the fathers were older than 40 than if they were in their 20s.
These new discoveries do not agree with current research which found that the father’s age was even more significant than the mother’s. Researchers and autism experts are saying that the new study is more believable, mostly because it is so much larger.
In general, it is known that older mothers are in jeopardy of facing more risks for having children with genetic disorders, and genes are believed to have an impact on autism.
This new study was released February 8, 2010 in the journal Autism Research.
A University of Wisconsin researcher who has also studies the influence of parents’ age on autism, pointed out that it is critical to note that the increased risks are very small and most babies are born to older mothers without developing autism.
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