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Maternal and Paternal Age are Jointly Associated with Childhood Autism in Jamaica

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Abstract

Several studies have reported maternal and paternal age as risk factors for having a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), yet the results remain inconsistent. We used data for 68 age- and sex-matched case–control pairs collected from Jamaica. Using Multivariate General Linear Models (MGLM) and controlling for parity, gestational age, and parental education, we found a significant (p < 0.0001) joint effect of parental ages on having children with ASD indicating an adjusted mean paternal age difference between cases and controls of [5.9 years; 95% CI (2.6, 9.1)] and a difference for maternal age of [6.5 years; 95% CI (4.0, 8.9)]. To avoid multicollinearity in logistic regression, we recommend joint modeling of parental ages as a vector of outcome variables using MGLM.

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Acknowledgments

This research is co-funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center (NIH-FIC) by a grant [R21HD057808] awarded to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). We also acknowledge the support provided by the Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design (BERD) component of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) for this project. CCTS is mainly funded by the NIH Centers for Translational Science Award (NIH CTSA) grant (UL1 RR024148), awarded to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2006 by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NICHD or the NIH-FIC or the NCRR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences (EHGES), School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Mohammad H. Rahbar

  2. Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design (BERD) Core, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), 6410 Fannin Street, UT Professional Building, Suite 1100.05, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Mohammad H. Rahbar

  3. Department of Child Health, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

    Maureen Samms-Vaughan & Sydonnie Shakespeare-Pellington

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth Medical School, UTHealth, 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77054, USA

    Katherine A. Loveland

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Changing Lives through Autism Spectrum Services (C.L.A.S.S.) Clinic, UTHealth, 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77054, USA

    Katherine A. Loveland

  6. Center of Excellence on Development and Psychopathology, UTHealth, 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77054, USA

    Katherine A. Loveland

  7. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth Medical School, UTHealth, 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77054, USA

    Deborah A. Pearson

  8. Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, UTHealth, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Jan Bressler, Megan L. Grove & Eric Boerwinkle

  9. Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design Core, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, UTHealth, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Zhongxue Chen, Manouchehr Ardjomand-Hessabi & Kari Bloom

  10. Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Caribbean Genetics, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

    Compton Beecher

  11. Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, UTHealth, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Eric Boerwinkle

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  1. Mohammad H. Rahbar
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  2. Maureen Samms-Vaughan
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Correspondence to Mohammad H. Rahbar.

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Rahbar, M.H., Samms-Vaughan, M., Loveland, K.A. et al. Maternal and Paternal Age are Jointly Associated with Childhood Autism in Jamaica. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1928–1938 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1438-z

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