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Father's age may affect children's mental health: Study
A mother’s age is commonly considered a genetic risk factor for certain congential disorders, but research shows that a father’s age may also increase the risk of intellectual disabilities and mental health issues, autism and schizophrenia in particular.
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The highest risk of mental health disorder tend to occur to children with a father with the age of 50 or more, and the mother at least 11 years younger. (Shutterstock/*)
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mother’s age is commonly considered a genetic risk factor for certain congential disorders, but research shows that a father’s age may also play a part.
Males may have the advantage of fertility for life, but in more mature fathers genetic mutations caused by sperm development increase significantly, and this increases the risk of intellectual disabilities and mental health issues, autism and schizophrenia in particular.
Children’s disability caused by an elderly father
Research involving over 2 million infants in Sweden, has shown that those whose fathers were over the age of 45, are more vulnerable to mental issues like autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attempted suicide and drug abuse. Other problems include bad grades in school and a low IQ. Other than that, based on the results of the Malaysia Mental Health Survei (MMHS) published online in March 2011, children whose fathers had an age gap of at least 11 years from their mother have a much higher chance of suffering from certain mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and even phobia.
(Read also: A study asks: Too much folic acid a cause of autism?)
The risk of mental disorders for children
Children whose fathers are aged 19 or younger, have a 9 percent risk of having a mental health disorder. Age aside, if the father is at least 11 years older from the mother, the risk increases substantially to 24 percent. The highest risk of mental health disorders (which is 42 percent) tend to occur in children with a father aged 50 or older, and the mother at least 11 years younger.
According to a study carried out between 1973 and 2001 by D’Onofrio and his co-workers involving 2.6 million children who were born in Sweden, a newborn with 45-year-old father has 3.5 times higher chance of having autism and 13 times higher chance of having ADHD compared with a newborn whose father was 24 years old. Not only that, newborns with a father over 45 years old tend to have a psychotic disorder, a 25 higher chance of having bipolar disorder and are about 2.5 times more likely to have suicidal tendencies or abuse drugs.
A father’s age can effect his sperm
Gene aging effects are considered to be the main reason children of older fathers may suffer mental health disorders. Older age is associated with spontaneous mutation (an alteration of genetic matter without a clear explanation) inside the nucleoid chromosome structure. The older a male is, the more vulnerable his sperm are to spontaneous mutation. Older males are actually less fortunate compared to older females because of the high rate of sperm cell splitting. A study shows that the oocyte cells (cells inside the ovary that forms the ovum) only splits 23 times in a lifetime. Females are born carry all the eggs they will use in their lifetime. On the other hand, male sperm splits every 16 days after puberty.
“When a male reach 40 years old, their sperm has split 660 times, and 800 times at the age of 50,” said the researchers. The amount of cell splitting can lead to gene alteration risk.
If I am past my prime, can I still have kids?
Females who have an older partner or one at least 10 years apart are not forbidden from starting a family. Because despite having the risk of a mental health disorder occurring on a child, the connection between the parent’s age and the chance of disability is relatively low.
Experts stressed that although old age was certainly a factor, it was not a primary cause of congenital disorders. Old age certainly does not fully explain why some children are born with disabilities while others are not. “Not all old couples will have mentally disabled children, and not all mentally disabled children were born from an old couple,” said Michael Rosanoff, director of Public Health Research in Autism Speaks. (kes)
