Paternal Age as a Risk Factor for Low Birthweight

Low Birth Weight is often observed in babies who go on to manifest paternal age related autism and schizophrenia.



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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Mar 29, 2006
American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2005.066324
Research and Practice
Paternal Age as a Risk Factor for Low Birthweight
Nancy E. Reichman 1* Julien O. Teitler 2

1 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
2 Columbia University


Abstract



Objectives. We examined associations between paternal age and low birthweight in the US urban population.

Methods. Using a population-based sample of 4621 births, we used multiple logistic regression analysis to estimate associations between paternal age and low birthweight, controlling for maternal age, other demographic factors, and the child's gender.

Results. When the child’s gender and the mother's race/ethnicity, birthplace, parity, marital status, and health insurance type were controlled, teenaged fathers were 20% less likely and fathers older than 34 years were 90% more likely than fathers aged 20 to 34 years to have low-birthweight babies. The associations were significant when maternal age was also controlled. No racial/ethnic differences in associations between paternal age and low birthweight were found.

Conclusions. We identified paternal age as an independent risk factor for low birthweight in the US urban population, suggesting that more attention needs to be paid to paternal influences on birth outcomes and to the interactive effects of urban environments and individual risk factors on health.

Key Words: Birth Outcomes, Socioeconomic Factors

Newborns At Risk for Special Ed-Fathers 40 or More at birth

1: Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2007 Mar 6; [Epub ahead of print]Newborns at risk for special education placement: A population-based study.Mannerkoski MK, Aberg LE, Autti TH, Hoikkala M, Sarna S, Heiskala HJ.
Department of Child Neurology, Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.

OBJECTIVES: To establish the contributions of birth weight (BW), gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and parental age on risks for special education (SE) placements in school-age children. METHODS: A population-based sample of 900 school-age children attending the following full-time SE groups: at level 1, children had isolated neurodevelopmental, physical, or other impairments; at level 2, borderline to mild intellectual disability (ID); and at level 3, moderate to severe ID. Three hundred and one children enrolled in mainstream education formed the control group (level 0). For all children with siblings, we defined familiar forms of learning disorders as having a sibling in one of the SE groupings. We performed our analysis for the entire cohort as well as comparing risk factors within the familial and non-familial types of SE groupings. RESULTS: In multinomial logistic regression analysis, age of father 40 years, low BW (<2500g or <-2 SD), male sex, and parent's lower SES, all increased the probability of SE placement. In the familial forms of levels 2 and 3, the parental SES was lower and, in addition, in the level 2, the family size was bigger. Furthermore, in the non-familial form of level 2, both the low and the high (4000g) BW were more common. CONCLUSIONS: Among the known risk factors for learning disabilities (LD), our study highlighted the importance of a higher paternal age and a lower SES especially in the familial forms of LD.

PMID: 17346999 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]