Autism linked to the Fathers age
A recent study has shown that men who become fathers after the age of 40 are more likely to have an autistic child than those who have children at a younger age. The research was conducted on 132,271 children born between 1980 and 1989; it showed that the children with older dads were six times more likely to suffer from autism or a similar learning disorder than those whose fathers were under 30 at the time they were born.
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February 12th, 2007 at 4:35 am
With the 40% increase in men fathering babies between 35-49 since 1980 and a 20% decrease before the age of 30 there is an upswing expected in cases of autism and schizophrenia in offspring. There are other conditions linked to older fathers in some research that might also be increasing, such as diabetes1, MS, cancers, and some rare birth defects. It would be expected that cases of hemophilia and Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy might also be rising as they are linked to the mother having had an older father at her own birth. I would be important to track the incidence of these chronic conditions in the years to come.