Parental age linked to autism in state study

Parental age linked to autism in state study
October 9th, 2009, 6:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Courtney Perkes
State officials have reviewed the birth records of more than 6.5 million California children to determine that the risk of autism rises with the age of parents.

The study by the California Department of Public Health determined that for each 10-year increase in a mother’s age, the risk of autism increased by about 38 percent. For each 10-year increase in a father’s age, the risk of autism increased by about 22 percent.

Researchers examined birth certificates for 20,701 children with autism and 6,505,555 children without autism born from 1989 to 2002. The increased risk of autism was highest among first-born children and declined among later-born children.

“This study adds another piece of information to the body of research on autism,” said Dr. Linda Rudolph, deputy director of CDPH, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. “We do not know why the risk for giving birth to a child who will be diagnosed with autism seems to increase modestly as parents age. There are still more questions than answers; there is far more work to be done to better understand autism and autism spectrum disorders.”

Janelle Lane, a Brea mother of a 7-year-old son with autism, called the study another piece of the puzzle.

“Autism is a puzzle made up of pieces of information that, on their own do not provide the whole picture, but as we gather them and put them together, they get us closer to understanding the cause and ultimately the cure,” she said.

Autism is a brain disorder that can limit a child’s ability to communicate, form relationships and respond appropriately to the environment. The state’s study is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology