Does late fatherhood affect the health of the child? Researchers from Indiana University (northern United States) and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm suggest a negative impact on children’s mental health.
Based on medical data from Swedes born between 1973 and 2001, scientists have established a significant link between the age of the father and the occurrence of psychiatric and learning disabilities. The list of dangers to which children are exposed is long: autism, attention deficit, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, low IQ, school failure. Children are also more vulnerable to drug problems and suicide attempts.
To support these gloomy conclusions, the researchers put forward figures from their analysis: a child whose father was 45 years old at birth was 3.5 times more likely to suffer from autism and 13 times more likely to have autism. have attention deficit disorder than a child whose father was 24 years old when he was born.
The risk of bipolarity was found to be 25 times higher for a child born to a 45-year-old father at birth compared to a 24-year-old father. As for suicidal tendencies and drug problems, the risk was multiplied by 2.5.
Researchers know that mutations in DNA can occur with every sperm replication. Indeed, with age, men are more exposed to environmental toxins that can alter the DNA of sperm. This could explain the negative impact of aging sperm on the development of the future child.
Rest assured parents, the parents’ level of education and income could compensate (a little) for the negative effects of late fatherhood, according to the researchers.
The study appeared in the scientific journal Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry.
