2 ms·
This has been "known" for years with autism, based on observational data. Normally, I don't put much into observational data, since it can be so wrong, but in
by JPKab 14y ago
This has been "known" for years with autism, based on observational data. Normally, I don't put much into observational data, since it can be so wrong, but in the autism/paternal age case, you have a HUGE, HUGE leap in likelihood of autism based on father's age. A man in his 40's is thousands of times more likely to have an autistic child than a man in his 20's, as a I recall from previous observational data.
- arscan 14y agoA thousand times? This article says 2 - 3 times: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428914/the-link-between-a-fathers-age-and-autism/ http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428914/the-link-between... Just curious because to me that's the most important piece of data.
- brockf 14y agoI think you may be thinking of the relationship between down syndrome and maternal age, which I have heard estimated at "thousands of times more likely". However, perhaps this is a slight exaggeration as well: http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/downsyndrome/l/bldownssyn.htm http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/downsyndrome/l/bldownssyn.htm
- anigbrowl 14y agothousands of times more likely This is the sort of thing you should check before you post. It only took a minute to find a well-sourced overview of the clinical literature on wikipedia, with results clustering around a 40% increased risk of autism for the offspring of men in their forties (vs men in their twenties), though one study from Israel found the the risk to be almost 6 times higher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_age_effect#Autism_spectrum_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_age_effect#Autism_spec... To blithely suggest that the probability is 'thousands of times' higher is misleading to the point of irresponsibility. Think of the confusion and anxiety such misinformation can create in the mind of an uninformed reader.