Women Over 30 Face Higher Risk of Having Child With Autism

Moms-to-be who are over 30 are more likely than younger mothers to have a child who develops autism, a new study has found, confirming a field of research that has shown links between parental age and autism risk. But the good news is that the risk remains very slim — approximately 1 in 100 overall, and, for mothers ages 30 to 45, less than 2 in 100.

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“In reality, this should not be the be-all end-all of the question, ‘Should I have a child?’” lead author Brian K. Lee, assistant professor in the Drexel University School of Public Health and research fellow of the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, tells Yahoo Shine. “It’s still a small number.”

The study did uncover a clear link between age and autism risk, however, through its analysis of a population registry sample of nearly 420,000 children born in Sweden between 1984 and 2003. Its findings, including that older fathers can also raise the risk of autism, echo those of "30-plus" past studies regarding parental age and autism, Lee explains. That there's link, he adds, is by now "a fairly confident thing to say."

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Research in 2010, for example, showed mothers over 40 to have a 51 percent higher risk of having a child with autism than mothers 25 to 29, and a 77 percent higher risk than mothers under 25. And in February of this year, an Indiana University study found that older fathers up the chances of having offspring with autism; when compared to a child born to a 24-year-old father, it found, a child with a 45-year-old dad is 3.5 times more likely to have autism. In addition, a 2013 study even found a link between the age of grandfathers and autism risk in their grandchildren.

There are a few key differences in Lee’s findings, he notes, including that his study analyzed women’s specific ages, rather than five-year age ranges, which are not as precise. Further, the population data analyzed here was relatively large, compared to other studies — and the fact that it’s from Sweden, which has a public healthcare system including autism-care subsidies that translate into accurate governmental tracking of autism data, adds another layer of precision.    

Various reasons could account for the rising autism risk with a woman’s age, the study noted, including environmental risk factors, as well as pregnancy complications — while those related to men seem more related to basic genetics, and how they naturally change over time. It’s information that Lee and others hope to use toward the goal of preventing autism. “We can’t do anything about genetics,” he notes, “but things like medical care? Yes. The hope is that there is something we can intervene with.”

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