Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Parental Age and Autism Spectrum Disorders Among New York City Children 0–36 Months of Age

  • Published:
Maternal and Child Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examined trends in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and the association of ASD with parental age among young New York City (NYC) children. Children born in NYC to resident mothers from 1994–2001 were identified through vital statistics records (N = 927,003). Records were linked to data from NYC Early Intervention (EI) Program through 2004. The independent parental age-specific odds of having an ASD before 36 months of age were estimated using multiple logistic regression controlling for risk factors. The increase in ASD attributable to changes in parental age at birth was examined. Births to mothers and fathers 35 years or older increased 14.9 and 11.5 %, respectively, between 1994 and 2001. ASD prevalence in EI increased significantly from 1 in 3,300 children born in 1994 to 1 in 233 children born in 2001. Children born to mothers ages 25–29, 30–34 and 35 or older had significantly greater odds of being diagnosed with ASD than children of mothers younger than 25 years (OR 1.5, 1.6, and 1.9, respectively). Children born to fathers ages 35 or older (OR 1.4) had greater odds of ASD than children of fathers younger than 25. The change in parental age accounted for only 2.7 % of the increase in ASD prevalence. Older paternal age and maternal age were independently associated with increased risk of ASD. However, while parental age at birth increased between the 1994 and 2001 birth cohorts in NYC, it did not explain the increase in number of ASD cases.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders—Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 14 sites, United States, 2008. MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 2012 Mar 30; 61, 1–19.

  2. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders—Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, United States, 2006. MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 2009 Dec 18; 58, 1–20.

  3. Hertz-Picciotto, I., & Delwiche, L. (2009). The rise in autism and the role of age at diagnosis. Epidemiology, 20, 84–90.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Croen, L. A., Najjar, D. V., Fireman, B., & Grether, J. K. (2007). Maternal and paternal age and risk of autism spectrum disorders. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 161, 334–340.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Durkin, M. S., Maenner, M. J., Newschaffer, C. J., Lee, L. C., Cunniff, C. M., Daniels, J. L., et al. (2008). Advanced parental age and the risk of autism spectrum disorder. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1(168), 1268–1276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Glasson, E. J., Bower, C., Petterson, B., de Klerk, N., Chaney, G., & Hallmayer, J. F. (2004). Perinatal factors and the development of autism: A population study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 618–627.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Grether, J. K., Anderson, M. C., Croen, L. A., Smith, D., & Windham, G. C. (2009). Risk of autism and increasing maternal and paternal age in a large north American population. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1(170), 1118–1126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. King, M. D., Fountain, C., Dakhlallah, D., & Bearman, P. S. (2009). Estimated autism risk and older reproductive age. American Journal of Public Health, 99, 1673–1679.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lauritsen, M. B., Pedersen, C. B., & Mortensen, P. B. (2005). Effects of familial risk factors and place of birth on the risk of autism: A nationwide register-based study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 963–971.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Reichenberg, A., Gross, R., Weiser, M., Bresnahan, M., Silverman, J., Harlap, S., et al. (2006). Advancing paternal age and autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 1026–1032.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Sasanfar, R., Haddad, S. A., Tolouei, A., Ghadami, M., Yu, D., & Santangelo, S. L. (2010). Paternal age increases the risk for autism in an Iranian population sample. Molecular Autism, 1, 2.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Shelton, J. F., Tancredi, D. J., & Hertz-Picciotto, I. (2010). Independent and dependent contributions of advanced maternal and paternal ages to autism risk. Autism Research, 3, 30–39.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Larsson, H. J., Eaton, W. W., Madsen, K. M., Vestergaard, M., Olesen, A. V., Agerbo, E., et al. (2005). Risk factors for autism: Perinatal factors, parental psychiatric history, and socioeconomic status. American Journal of Epidemiology, 161, 916–925. discussion 26–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Martin, J. A. (2013). Births: Final data for 2011. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Pfeiffer, M. R., Mavinkurve, M., Slopen, M. E., Osterman, M. J. K., Mathews, R. J. (2010). Creation of a child-centric interagency data warehouse: The longitudinal study of early development. In Proceedings of statistics Canada 2010 international methodology symposium.

  16. Jaro, M. A. (1995). Probabilistic linkage of large public health data files. Statistics in Medicine, 14, 491–498.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Iossifov, I., Ronemus, M., Levy, D., Wang, Z., Hakker, I., Rosenbaum, J., et al. (2012). De novo gene disruptions in children on the autistic spectrum. Neuron, 26(74), 285–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Sebat, J., Lakshmi, B., Malhotra, D., Troge, J., Lese-Martin, C., Walsh, T., et al. (2007). Strong association of de novo copy number mutations with autism. Science, 20(316), 445–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Croen, L. A., Grether, J. K., & Selvin, S. (2002). Descriptive epidemiology of autism in a California population: Who is at risk? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 217–224.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Gardener, H., Spiegelman, D., & Buka, S. L. (2009). Prenatal risk factors for autism: Comprehensive meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 195, 7–14.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Krakowiak, P., Walker, C. K., Bremer, A. A., Baker, A. S., Ozonoff, S., Hansen, R. L., et al. (2012). Maternal metabolic conditions and risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Pediatrics, 129, e1121–e1128.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Manning, S. E., Davin, C. A., Barfield, W. D., Kotelchuck, M., Clements, K., Diop, H., et al. (2011). Early diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders in Massachusetts birth cohorts, 2001–2005. Pediatrics, 127, 1043–1051.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Tiffany Harris, MS, PhD for thoughtful review and input on the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Mental Hygiene, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 42-09 28th Street, Queens, NY, 11101, USA

    Carol A. Quinlan, Cynthia R. Driver, Prashil Govind & Adam Karpati

  2. Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Queens, NY, USA

    Katharine H. McVeigh

Authors
  1. Carol A. Quinlan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Katharine H. McVeigh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cynthia R. Driver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Prashil Govind
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Adam Karpati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carol A. Quinlan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Quinlan, C.A., McVeigh, K.H., Driver, C.R. et al. Parental Age and Autism Spectrum Disorders Among New York City Children 0–36 Months of Age. Matern Child Health J 19, 1783–1790 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-015-1692-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-015-1692-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation