By Jonathan Slack, Autism Home Support Services
Previous studies have shown that the risk of having an autistic child increases the older you are. A new study involving 5.7 million children between 1985 and 2004 in Denmark, Israel, Norway, Sweden and Australia has found new evidence to support previous studies that the risk of having a child with autism increases the older you are.
This study found:
- The chances a child will be on the autism spectrum is increased by 66% when the parents are at least fifty years old.
- When the male parent is in his 40s, the chances his newborn will one day be diagnosed with autism increases by 28%.
- On the maternal side, having a child between the ages of forty and fifty increases the chance the child will be on the autism spectrum by 15%.
These type of studies are important because we do not yet understand what causes autism. The range of high and low functioning individuals with autism suggests the cause is a combination of many different factors. Learning about each factor will get us a little closer to solving the big question: What causes autism? Hopefully that day will happen in my lifetime, but for now I’ll be happy with each little step of progress we make towards answering that ultimate question.
Source: www.dailytimesgazette.com
