clipped from drppanda.amplify.com

Elderly mothers above the age of 35 may give birth to genetically abnormal child. But it is not absolute. Autism a very distressing disease, stresses the parents and the child.

Older women are more likely to give birth to a child who develops autism than younger women, but the father’s age is a factor only when moms are younger, a large case-control study showed.

In an analysis of nearly five million births and more than 12,000 autism cases, every five-year increase in maternal age at delivery was associated with an 18% greater risk of the child later being diagnosed with autism, according to Janie Shelton, MPH, a doctoral student at the University of California Davis, and colleagues.

Mothers who gave birth when they were 40 or older had a 51% increased risk of having a child with autism compared with those who were 25 to 29, the largest age group (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.70), the researchers reported in the February issue of Autism Research. Read more at www.medpagetoday.com