Friday, December 11, 2009

Does parenthood have a Best Before date?

Science, Technology & Nature BlogDoes parenthood have a Best Before date?1
Posted on 2009-12-11 by The Open2 team2

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Breaking Science3
The Breaking Science3 team come to BBC Radio Five Live to break open this week's science stories.
Kat Arney tells Chris Smith why men had better not leave fatherhood too late.

Kat Arney: Yes, Hugh Hefner famously became a dad in his sixties and generally speaking men are fathering children at older ages, although only rarely while they’re in retirement, but are there health risks for the children of older dads? Now recent research has suggested that kids fathered by older men might have an increased risk of birth deformities and other health conditions, and now a new analysis by Australian researchers suggest that there might be other more subtle problems too.

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Father and baby.Picture © Copyright Jupiterimages Corporation.

Chris Smith: Such as what?

Kat: Well, this is a study led by John McGrath 5 and his researchers at the University of Queensland. They re-analysed data 6 from a study of more than 33,000 children born in the US between 1959 and 1965, and this was data from an impressive study called The Collaborative Perinatal Project 7 which tested every child at eight months, four years and seven years for a variety of skills, coordination and intelligence, and writing in the journal PloS Medicine this week, the team reanalysed this data to take socioeconomic factors into account. So as well as looking at the age of the parents, they also looked at the mother and father’s education levels and their income as well as other factors.

Chris: And this re-analysis, what did it show?

Kat: Well, the researchers discovered that after adjusting for these social factors, the children of older dads were more likely to have lower scores on the tests, with the exception of one test of physical coordination. But, interestingly, they found that the children of older mothers were more likely to score highly in the tests.

Chris: That seems a bit surprising, doesn’t it, because you’ve got the children of the older dads being at a disadvantage, the same is not true with the mums, so what’s going on?

Kat: Well it’s true, and some researchers have suggested that maybe kids born to older mothers have a more nurturing home environment, and studies suggest that this doesn’t hold true for older dads. But, looking for a biological explanation, we also know that men’s sperm can accumulate DNA damage, especially as they get older, as it can in female eggs. But the take-home message seems to be that actually we need to try and find new explanations for these observations that take into account both the social factors that are at work and the underlying biology, because there is this trend towards older parenthood.

Chris: So you basically need a young dad and an old mum, is that what you’re saying?

Kat: Erm, possibly, yes.

Find out more
What do children think makes the best parents?8

Fertility: A doctor’s advice9

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