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The Association Between Parental Age and Autism-Related Outcomes in Children at High Familial Risk for Autism
Journal article   Open access

The Association Between Parental Age and Autism-Related Outcomes in Children at High Familial Risk for Autism

Kristen Lyall, Lanxin Song, Kelly Botteron, Lisa A Croen, Stephen R Dager, M Daniele Fallin, Heather C Hazlett, Elizabeth Kauffman, Rebecca Landa, Christine Ladd-Acosta, …
Autism research, v 13(6), pp 998-1010
Jun 2020
PMID: 32314879
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7396152View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified) Open

Abstract

high familial risk parental age autism autism-related traits
Advanced parental age is a well-replicated risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition with a complex and not well-defined etiology. We sought to determine parental age associations with ASD-related outcomes in subjects at high familial risk for ASD. A total of 397 younger siblings of a child with ASD, drawn from existing prospective high familial risk cohorts, were included in these analyses. Overall, we did not observe significant associations of advanced parental age with clinical ASD diagnosis, Social Responsiveness Scale, or Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales scores. Instead, increased odds of ASD were found with paternal age < 30 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.83 and 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.14-7.02). Likewise, younger age (<30 years) for both parents was associated with decreases in Mullen Scales of Early Learning early learning composite (MSEL-ELC) scores (adjusted β = -9.62, 95% CI = -17.1 to -2.15). We also found significant increases in cognitive functioning based on MSEL-ELC scores with increasing paternal age (adjusted β associated with a 10-year increase in paternal age = 5.51, 95% CI = 0.70-10.3). Results suggest the potential for a different relationship between parental age and ASD-related outcomes in families with elevated ASD risk than has been observed in general population samples. Autism Res 2020, 13: 998-1010. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Previous work suggests that older parents have a greater likelihood of having a child with autism. We investigated this relationship in the younger siblings of families who already had a child with autism. In this setting, we found a higher likelihood of autism, as well as poorer cognitive scores, in the siblings with younger fathers, and higher cognitive scores in the siblings with older parents. These results suggest that parental age associations may differ based on children's familial risk for autism.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Behavioral Sciences
Psychology, Developmental
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