Background: In addition to the genes they pass on, parents’ age at the time of a child’s birth appears to influence ASD risk. Studies conducted over the past two decades have suggested that children of older parents have a higher risk of developing ASD.

What’s New: On June 9, 2015, a study in Molecular Psychiatry probed the role of parental age in ASD. The researchers examined health records from nearly six million children across five countries—with more than 30,000 ASD diagnoses. They found that the children born to mothers between the ages of 40 and 49 or to fathers older than 50 were more likely to have an ASD diagnosis than those with parents in their twenties. They also found an increased likelihood of ASD diagnosis in children born to mothers younger than 20 and in children whose parents were more than 10 years apart in age.

Why it’s important: This is the largest-ever multinational study looking at parental age and ASD. While the results appear to support the theory posited by previous studies—that genes inside sperm undergo mutations as men get older, contributing to ASD in the resulting offspring—future research could illuminate the biological roles of maternal age and age gaps between parents in relation to ASD.

What Parental Factors Are Associated with Autism?

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