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Child autism linked to older fathers6 September 2006 Older men are more likely to father autistic children than their younger counterparts, new research has claimed. Fathers aged over 40 are almost six times more likely to have children with autism compared to men aged 29 or lower, providing further evidence that men may have a biological clock for having healthy babies, suggests study researcher Dr Abraham Reichenberg. Dr Reichenberg and his team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York studied more than 300,000 children born in Israel in the 1980s. The fathers' ages were noted for all the children and the mothers' ages were recorded for 132,271 of them. The children were examined for psychiatric disorders at age 17, with results showing that fathers over 40 were nearly six times more likely to have children with autism, even after researchers took into account the year of birth, socioeconomic status and mother's age. People with autism often show signs of repetitive behaviour, problems with social interaction and speaking difficulties. Dr Reichenberg and his colleagues suggest that several genetic differences between older and younger men may be the reason, such as mutations in sperm-producing cells or changes to the way genes are passed down to children. More information
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