Estimated Autism Risk and Older Reproductive Age - Incite at Columbia University

In this study, we aimed to estimate the risk for autism associated with maternal and paternal age across successive birth cohorts to gain insight into possible sources of discrepancies in previous studies. Our analyses show that previously estimated parental age risks are inflated due to pooling across time. We demonstrate that advanced maternal age, rather than paternal age, may pose greater risk for autism. Future research examining parental age as a risk factor must be careful to avoid the paradoxes that can arise from ignoring time, particularly during periods of social demographic change.