The largest-ever multinational study of parental age and autism risk, funded by Autism Speaks, found increased autism rates among the children of teen moms and among children whose parents have relatively large gaps between their ages. The study also confirmed that older parents are at higher risk of having children with autism. The analysis included more than 5.7 million children in five countries.
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Though we've seen research on autism and parental age before, this study is like no other," says co-author Michael Rosanoff, Autism Speaks' director of public health research. "By linking national health registries across five countries, we created the world's largest data set for research into autism's risk factors. The size allowed us to look at the relationship between parents' age and autism at a much higher resolution - under a microscope, if you will."
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The study looked at autism rates among 5,766,794 children -- including more than 30,000 with autism -- in Denmark, Israel, Norway, Sweden and Western Australia. The children were born between 1985 and 2004, and the researchers followed up on their development until 2009, checking national health records for autism diagnoses.
Researchers identified and controlled for other age-related influences that might affect autism risk. When separating the influence of mother's versus father's age, they also adjusted for the potential influence of the other parent's age.
"After finding that paternal age, maternal age and parental-age gaps all influence autism risk independently, we calculated which aspect was most important," Dr. Sandin adds. "It turned out to be parental age, though age gaps also contribute significantly."
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