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Purpose To assess the relationships between parental ages and preterm birth subtypes. Methods A population-based cohort analysis of California livebirths 2007-2012. Associations between maternal and paternal age with spontaneous and medically indicated preterm birth were estimated from Cox proportional hazard models. Parental age was modeled with restricted cubic splines to account for nonlinear relationships. Results Young paternal age was associated with increased hazard ratios for spontaneous and medically indicated preterm birth. Older fathers showed elevated hazards for preterm birth in crude analysis but after adjustment the relationship was generally not observed. Aging mothers showed increased hazard ratios for both preterm birth phenotypes. Conclusions After adjusting for parental demographics, births to younger fathers and older mothers had the highest risks for spontaneous preterm birth. The paternal influence on preterm birth was observed to be independent of maternal factors.

Backgrounds The proportion of assisted reproductive technology (ART)-conceived livebirths of patients with imprinting disorders (IDs) is higher than that of the general population. Whether this is due to ART or confounding effects of advanced parental age was not investigated. We examined the association of ART and parental ages at childbirth for the development of eight epimutation-mediated imprinting disorders (epi-IDs). Results We enrolled 136 patients with epi-IDs and obtained general population ART data from the Japanese robust nationwide registry. We compared the proportion of ART-conceived livebirths and maternal childbearing ages between patients with epi-IDs and the general population. The proportion of ART-conceived livebirths in patients with epi-IDs was higher than that in mothers aged ≥ 30 years, the age group in which more than 90% of ART procedures performed. The maternal childbearing ages of patients with epi-IDs were widely distributed from 19 to 45 (median: 32) within the approximate 2.5th to 97.5th percentiles of maternal childbearing ages of the general population. In addition, we compared the proportion of ART-conceived livebirths and parental ages at childbirth across patients with eight epi-IDs. We demonstrated that more than 90% of ART-conceived patients with epi-IDs were found in Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) and Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) patients, and parental ages were almost consistent in patients with eight epi-IDs, except Prader-Willi syndrome. Conclusions According to the prerequisite that most of the ART procedures in Japan are performed on mothers aged ≥ 30 years, ART can be a risk factor for the development of epi-IDs, particularly SRS and BWS, for mothers aged ≥ 30 years.

The genomes of individuals with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders are enriched in damaging de novo mutations (DNMs) in developmentally important genes. Here we have sequenced the exomes of 4,293 families containing individuals with developmental disorders, and meta-analysed these data with data from another 3,287 individuals with similar disorders. We show that the most important factors influencing the diagnostic yield of DNMs are the sex of the affected individual, the relatedness of their parents, whether close relatives are affected and the parental ages. We identified 94 genes enriched in damaging DNMs, including 14 that previously lacked compelling evidence of involvement in developmental disorders. We have also characterized the phenotypic diversity among these disorders. We estimate that 42% of our cohort carry pathogenic DNMs in coding sequences; approximately half of these DNMs disrupt gene function and the remainder result in altered protein function. We estimate that developmental disorders caused by DNMs have an average prevalence of 1 in 213 to 1 in 448 births, depending on parental age. Given current global demographics, this equates to almost 400,000 children born per year.

Objective To investigate parental age in relation to the severity of cleft diagnosis in a population-based consecutive sample of individuals with clefts. Setting/sample Retrospective, consecutive. Material/methods The sample comprised 545 consecutive cases with nonsyndromic clefts (437 individuals with cleft lip with/without cleft palate [CL ± P] and 106 individuals with isolated cleft palate [CP]) and parental ages recorded. The groups were subdivided according to the extent/severity of cleft. Unilateral clefts were divided according to left/right sidedness. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between parental age and risk of severe cleft separately for CL ± P and CP, as well as between parental age and risk of right-sided cleft. Results In CL ± P, the risk of a complete cleft in the offspring increases with maternal age when the paternal age exceeds approximately 29 years. Moreover, the risk is higher when both parents are old than when both parents are young. In CP, no statistically significant results were identified. However, there were clear trends that indicated a similar pattern as that for CL ± P. No association was identified between increased parental age and the sidedness of clefts. Conclusions Parental age seems to contribute to cleft severity, as older parents showed a higher risk of having offspring with a complete cleft than younger parents.

In this study, we verified the effects of smartphone addiction proneness of young children (ages one to six) on problematic behaviors and emotional intelligence. We investigated whether parental self-assessment of smartphone usage affects the way in which children's smartphone addiction impacts their behaviors and emotional intelligence. Smartphone addiction proneness sub-factors interfere with daily life and compulsory control through voluntary isolation and personality distortion. Differences exist in daily-life interference according to parental ages, voluntary isolation according to parental occupations, and personality distortion according to parental academic backgrounds. Among attributes of young children's smartphone usage, differences exist in compulsory control needs and personality distortion starting from a young age, and compulsory control needs according to the child's daily smartphone usage. Moreover, no correlations exist between independent variables of daily-life interference and the emotional intelligence outcome variable. All addictive tendencies have significant positive effects on problematic behaviors, and significant negative effects on emotional intelligence. The greater the degree to which parents are self-evaluative of their smartphone usage, the lower is the influence of children's smartphone addiction proneness on their problematic behaviors. This study suggests that parents' self-reflective attitude towards smartphone usage can undermine the negative effects of smartphone overuse by young children. Study verified effects of smartphone addiction proneness of young children.Addictive tendency relates to problem behaviors and reduced emotional intelligence.Parents' attitude can undermine negative effects of smartphone overuse by children.

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations of parental ages at childbirth with healthy survival to age 90 years among older women. STUDY DESIGN: This study included a racially and ethnically diverse sub-cohort of 8,983 postmenopausal women from the larger Women’s Health Initiative population, recruited during 1993–1998 and followed for up to 25 years through 2018. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome was categorized as: 1) healthy survival, defined as survival to age 90 without major morbidities (coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, or hip fracture) or mobility disability; 2) usual survival, defined as survival to age 90 without healthy aging (reference category); or 3) death before age 90. Women reported their own and their parents’ birth years, and parental ages at childbirth were calculated and categorized as

The present study evaluated different selection strategies to improve the growth performance and carcass traits of Japanese quails. To this end, 540 Japanese quails previously selected for high body weight at three ages (10, 12 and 14 weeks) from four close-bred flocks (Major, Kaleem, Saadat and Zahid) were subjected to three selection strategies: pedigree-based, mass selection or random-bred (controls). For pedigree-based selection, 108 birds (4 close-bred flocks × 3 age groups × 9 replicates × 1 bird each) with full pedigree and selected for high body weight were used, whereas in mass selection 324 birds (4 close-bred flocks × 3 age groups × 9 replicates × 3 birds each) with high body weight were selected to be the parents of next generation. Random-bred controls included 108 birds (4 close-bred flocks × 3 age groups × 9 replicates × 1bird each) which were not previously submitted to selection. The effects of selection strategies of Japanese quail parents from four close-bred flocks (CBF) at three ages on the performance growth and carcass traits of their progenies were measured. The parent flocks were selected at three ages (10, 12 and 14 weeks) and reared for 20 weeks, and their progenies were reared for four weeks. The progeny of pedigree-based selected parents presented better feed intake (g), body weight gain (g), feed conversion ratio, live and carcass weights (g), and carcass yield. The progeny of 10- and 14-week-old parents showed better growth performance and carcass traits, respectively. Moreover, there was no influence of CBF on growth and carcass traits. It was concluded that pedigree-based selection had pronounced effect on the growth performance and carcass traits of the progeny compared with mass selection and random breeding. It is suggested that parental ages of 10 and 14 weeks of age promote better progeny growth performance and carcass traits.

Background Every child seems to have the normal level of fears towards certain subjects that started in early childhood and act as an assurance policy to protect the child from harm. Parents play the major role in reassuring their children and protecting them from fear and anxiety, on the other hand, they may behave to cause child fear by overprotection or sometimes by intimidating them to obey certain commands or to stop the annoying act. The acts of child intimidating behaviour by their parents constitute a pervasive and ignored form of emotional abuse. The aims of this study were to assess the psychological impact of the parenting trends towards intimidation of their children from doctors and injections and to assess its relation to some demographic variables (parenting relationship, parental ages, parental level of education, sex of the child, and if the child has chronic illness) and to the refusal of the medications. Methods The study followed the descriptive analytical method and included the parents of 103 kindergarten children aged 3–6 years. Data collected using the scale of parenting trends in the period of September 2015 to January 2016. Results Intimidating child from doctor and injections has a highly negative impact on the child psychologically. There are no significant differences in the degree of intimidation of the child from doctors and injections attributable to the parenting relationship (father, mother), the age of the parents, their educational level, the child sex, and the presence of chronic illness. 59% of the parents link between this trend and the child refusal of the medications. Conclusions Intimidation of the children from doctor and injections has a highly negative impact on the children psychologically and may contribute to their refusal of medications. No significant differences attributable to the demographical variables.

AIM: Cerebral hypoxia has been associated with neurodevelopmental impairment. We studied whether reducing cerebral hypoxia in extremely preterm infants during the first 72 hours of life affected neurological outcomes at two years of corrected age.METHODS: In 2012-2013, the phase II randomised Safeguarding the Brains of our smallest Children trial compared visible cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring in an intervention group and blinded NIRS monitoring in a control group. Cerebral hypoxia was significantly reduced in the intervention group. We followed up 115 survivors from eight European centres at two years of corrected age, by conducting a medical examination and assessing their neurodevelopment with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Second or Third Edition, and the parental Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ).RESULTS: There were no differences between the intervention (n = 65) and control (n = 50) groups with regard to the mean mental developmental index (89.6 ± 19.5 versus 88.4 ± 14.7, p = 0.77), ASQ score (215 ± 58 versus 213 ± 58, p = 0.88) and the number of children with moderate-to-severe neurodevelopmental impairment (10 versus six, p = 0.58).CONCLUSION: Cerebral NIRS monitoring was not associated with long-term benefits or harm with regard to neurodevelopmental outcome at two years of corrected age.

While the search for genetic contributors to exceptional longevity has yielded candidates, gender differences in inheritance have generally not been considered. The aim of this study was to investigate gender specific differences in the inheritance of exceptional longevity. Using a standardized questionnaire, we assessed the parental ages of death of Ashkenazi Jews with exceptional longevity and their spouses without exceptional longevity, who served as controls (n=1,114). Mothers of centenarian males and females had significantly longer lifespans compared to the mothers of non-centenarians, 79.0 ± 13.4 vs. 73.0 ± 16.3 years, p

Background: Preterm infants are at greater risk of developmental impairment and require close follow-up for early and optimal care. Objectives: The objective of the present study was to determine from which age the parental Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) allows detection of school difficulties in preterm children Methods: Preterm children from the regional Loire Infant Follow-up Team network were evaluated with the Global School Adaptation (GSA) assessment tool at 5 years of age and at least one parental-completed ASQ at 18, 24, or 36 months. Children belonging to the first decile of the GSA score (Results: GSA scores were obtained in 1,775 infants at 5 years of age, and at least one ASQ score at 18, 24, or 36 months was completed. Upon ROC analysis, we observed that the 18-, 24-, and 36-month ASQ scores produced respective area under the ROC curve values of 0.66 (0.64-0.69), 0.72 (0.70-0.75), and 0.77 (0.75-0.80) for predicting a GSA score in the first decile. An ASQ cutoff value of 255 at 36 months showed optimal discriminatory power for identifying significant school difficulties at 5 years of age. Conclusions: The 36-month ASQ is a simple and cost-effective tool that can be employed to help predict future severe school difficulties at 5 years of age in preterm-born children.

BACKGROUND While it is widely known that maternal age at childbearing plays a role in the occurrence of Down syndrome, less is known about the effects of maternal age on other major congenital anomalies. Information on the possible effects of other maternal characteristics and of the age of the father is even scarcer. OBJECTIVE We present new results on the associations between parental ages and other maternal characteristics on the one hand, and congenital anomalies on the other, using linked data from three Czech registries on mothers, newborns, and malformations, for the period 2000-2007. METHODS As the variables are in a categorical format, binary logistic regression is used in order to investigate the relationship between the presence/absence of a congenital anomaly for each of the 11 types of anomalies considered, and for the set of predictors. RESULTS This research confirms that the age of the mother has an impact on the incidence of Down syndrome and other chromosomal anomalies. Paternal age is not associated with chromosomal anomalies, and, in this Czech population, has a rather slight effect on some of the congenital anomalies examined. Another finding of the present study is that various other maternal characteristics may affect the incidence of congenital malformations. CONCLUSIONS Based on a large dataset, this study concludes that the ages of both parents can be associated with congenital anomalies of the child, and that maternal characteristics other than age have also to be considered. COMMENTS Risk factors can be tentatively proposed if they are based on a plausible and suitably tested explanatory mechanism. Unfortunately, in the majority of individual cases of congenital anomaly, the cause of the condition is unknown, and is suspected to result from an interaction of multiple environmental and genetic factors. © 2013 Jitka Rychtařikova et al.

Background Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is the most common autosomal dominant neurocutaneous disease with a prevalence of 1:2500. Approximately, 50% of the cases are sporadic. Advanced paternal age is associated with germline mutations and autosomal diseases. We aimed to use NF1 as a paradigm to study the effect of parental age on sporadic mutation rates for both advanced and younger parental ages. Methods The medical charts of 118 NF1 pediatric patients followed in a specialized Israeli NF1 clinic were evaluated. Thirty-one cases were diagnosed by genetic tests and 87 by NIH clinical criteria. Sixty-four cases (54%) had a negative family history of NF1 (sporadic cases). Data on parental ages at the time of the children's birth were compared to the national population database. Results Parental age of children with sporadic NF1 was higher than the general population (32.7 years vs. 30.1 years, respectively, for the mothers and 36.5 years vs. 32.6 years, respectively, for the fathers; P

This study was conducted to determine the effect of incubation relative humidity (RH) from 14 to 24 d of incubation during 3 parental ages on hatchability and posthatching growth of Pekin ducklings. Egg production was divided into 3 age groups (25-35, 36-55, and 56-65 wk). A total of 21,600 hatching eggs was subjected to 55, 60, 65, and 70% RH from 14 to 24 d, whereas standard conditions were used from 0 to 14 d and 24 to 28 d of incubation. All eggs were individually weighed before setting in the incubator and again at 14 and 24 d of incubation to determine egg weight loss. A sample of 20 eggs from unhatched and hatched eggs from each group were randomly taken on the hatching day and used to determine eggshell thickness and pore number. Duckling weight at hatching was recorded and BW gain, feed consumption, feed conversion, and viability were then recorded to 21 d of age. Egg weight increased with hen age but did not differ by incubation treatment. Increasing RH from 55% to 60, 65, and 70% decreased percentage egg weight loss in a stepwise manner irrespective of parental age. Shell thickness was less for hatched eggs compared with nonhatched eggs within each parental age. Shell thickness decreased while pore density increased with increased parental age for both nonhatched and hatched eggs. The lowest embryonic mortality among the incubation periods (14-24 and 0-24 d) and best hatchability of fertile eggs was recorded with 60% RH during the first parental age (25-35 wk), 65% RH during 36-55 wk of age, and 70% RH during 56-65 wk of age. The best incubation results were directly associated with the greatest duckling BW at hatching and at 21 d of age, BW gain, feed conversion, and viability during each parental age period. It was concluded that duck eggs produced within a specific parental age period require a specific incubation RH to attain the best hatchability and posthatching duckling performance.

Drawing on information from a survey sample of individuals with learning difficulties aged ≥5 years in 4 districts in Wales, data are presented on the ages of parents and offspring, household composition, the level of dependency of offspring, expectations of progress towards independence and the levels of service and informal support received by individuals or families. Most people with learning difficulties living in the family home were adults, although the proportion decreased with age. Transition from the family home was particularly related to certain age groups and to the presence of a single parent rather than two. Primary carers were predominantly mothers. Parental ages ranged from 75 years, on average differing from that of the offspring with learning difficulties by about 30 years. Single parent households became more common with increasing age, although these were also relatively frequent among the youngest age group, and there was a steady movement out of the home of siblings. Individuals tended to increase skills with time and the adults in family homes were significantly less dependent than the children. However, parents of children had greater optimism for continued progress in areas where offspring were not fully independent than did those of adults. Service support was more available to families of younger than older adults and the level of service planning for individuals aged 2S years or over was severely deficient. The results illustrate the variability in circumstance of family members as they grow older. A much more close understanding is required of how families age, how the relationships between members change and how the needs and ambitions of the family evolve, both individually and collectively, for service support to be matched to family circumstance.

Objective: Determining the types of home injuries observed with children between ages 0 to 5, factors that lead to these injuries, and attitudes and behaviors of families in preventing these injuries. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire composed of 47 questions was employed for 500 families with children aged between 0 and 5 who visited the Ankara Research and Training Hospital between April and June in 2009. Results: 248 (49.6%) of the participants indicated that their children had had a home injury. 129 of the children (52.1%) were male. The risk of a home injury increased as the age of parents decreased, number of siblings increased, socioeconomic level decreased (especially with those families who live in illegally built houses), and the size of the family increased. The most frequent types of home injuries were falling and slipping, and of those injured, 56% and 60.4% were hospitalized. There was a statistically signifi cant diff erence between the types of injuries in terms of hospitalization ratios. In the families of children who had injuries, it was determined that incorrect behaviors and attitudes are more often seen in mothers who have a low level of education. Conclusions: The risk of home injury increases especially with the decrease in parental ages. Because of this, we consider that the risk of home injuries could decrease with education given to families, especially those who visit polyclinics. (JAEM 2010; 9: 129-33)

The incidence of leukaemia and the mortality from various causes other than cancer observed in the offspring of the Japanese bomb survivors are analysed using linear and exponential forms of a relative risk model. The relative risk coefficients for leukaemia as a function of total pre-conception dose in the offspring of the Japanese and those for children of the Sellafield workforce are compared, and statistically significant differences are found. The statistical significance of these differences is no less marked if attention is restricted to those born before the end of 1950 in the Japanese cohort; therefore it is unlikely that the differences between the pre-conception irradiation leukaemia risks in the Japanese and Sellafield datasets are a result of the different distributions of parental ages at exposure in the two groups, or of the different lengths of time between exposure of spermatogonia and conception. The statistical discrepancies between the two datasets are found to be reasonably robust to possible dosimetric uncertainties in the Sellafield group.

Seventy-eight cases of retinoblastoma (Rb) diagnosed at the Eye ENT Hospital, Shanghai Medical University from 1953 to 1985 were studied. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis and conditional probability model showed that high fetal order had a moderate risk (OR=1.28,P

To examine whether parental ages at birth of children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are elevated, maternal/paternal ages at birth of 309 PDD children born in 1993-2003 (mean age, 8.4 years) were compared with those of children in the Japanese national statistics (general population). The mean maternal/paternal ages (years) at birth of PDD children of 31.7/34.6 were significantly higher even than the highest mean maternal/paternal ages at birth of children of 31.2/33.6 in the national statistics in 2003. This first Japanese study to report elevated parental ages at birth of PDD children underscores the need of further extensive studies.

Background Some studies have found that lower parity and higher or lower social class (depending on the study) are associated with increased risks of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Such findings have led to suggestions that infection could play a role in the causation of this disease. An earlier New Zealand study found a protective effect of parental marriage on the risk of childhood ALL, and studies elsewhere have reported increased risks in relation to older parental ages. This study aimed to assess whether lower parity, lower social class, unmarried status and older parental ages increase the risk of childhood ALL (primarily). These variables were also assessed in relation to the risks of childhood acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease. Methods A case control study was conducted. The cases were 585 children diagnosed with leukaemias or lymphomas throughout New Zealand over a 12 year period. The 585 age and sex matched controls were selected at random from birth records. Birth records from cases (via cancer registration record linkage) and from controls provided accurate data on maternal parity, social class derived from paternal occupation, maternal marital status, ages of both parents, and urban status based on the address on the birth certificate. Analysis was by conditional logistic regression. Results There were no statistically significant associations overall between childhood ALL and parity of the mother, social class, unmarried maternal status, increasing parental ages (continuous analysis), or urban status. We also found no statistically significant associations between the risks of childhood acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, or Hodgkin's disease and the variables studied. Conclusion This study showed no positive results though of reasonable size, and its record linkage design minimised bias. Descriptive studies (eg of time trends of ALL) show that environmental factors must be important for some diagnoses. Work has been done on the risk of ALL in relation to chemicals (eg pesticides) and drugs, dietary factors (eg vitamins), electromagnetic fields and infectious hypotheses (to name some); but whether these or other unknown factors are truly important remains to be seen.

We studied parental ages of institutionalized children with hydranencephaly. Mothers under age 20 years and under age 18 years were, respectively, 5 and 10 times as frequent as in the general population, and 3 and 4 times more frequent than for institutionalized control patients. Unwed mothers were also common, but may reflect high rates in younger mothers combined with institutionalization bias. Thus, hydranencephaly appears to show a decreased maternal age effect, similar to that seen with other conditions presumably due to prenatal vascular disruptions.

We report the parental origin, and where possible the chromosomal origin of 115 de novo unbalanced structural chromosome abnormalities detectable by light microscopy. These consisted of 39 terminal deletions, 35 interstitial deletions, 8 rings, 12 duplications and 21 unbalanced translocations. In all categories the majority of abnormalities were of paternal origin, although the proportions varied from a high of 84% in the interstitial deletions and rings to a low of 58% in the duplications. Among the interstitial deletions and duplications, there were approximately equal numbers of intra- and interchromosomal abnormalities, while the majority of unbalanced translocations were isodisomic for the duplicated chromosome. The examination of the parental ages in the four main classes of abnormality showed terminal deletions of maternal origin to be associated with a significantly reduced maternal age. Thus, there is a clear propensity for structural chromosome abnormalities to occur in male germ cells, although the chromosomal origin seems similar irrespective of the parental origin.

Objective The purpose of this study was to characterize nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL±CP) in an Asian population. Design Birth prevalence was assessed in a large birth series in Shanghai, China. A 1:3 sex-age-hospital matched case-control design was used to assess the effects of parental ages and pregnancy history on risk of CL±CP. Participants Records of live births from 1980 to 1989 in 22 hospitals in Shanghai, China, were reviewed, comprising 541,504 consecutive births, which is by far the largest such Chinese sample ever investigated. The case-control study included 528 (308 male, 220 female) nonsyndromic CL±CP cases and 1563 (912 male, 651 female) controls. Results From 1980 to 1989, the overall birth prevalence was 1.2 per 1000 live births with statistically significant seasonal variation (more CL±CP births in January to July). The overall male:female ratio was 1.40:1. For males, statistically significant associations were identified with maternal age for the most severe clefts (bilateral overall, and also bilateral CL+CP subgroup). For females, statistically significant association was shown for pregnancy age with birth order (overall and in most subgroups). Conclusions The birth prevalence of CL±CP in this Asian population was similar to published Caucasian rates. The observed seasonal variation would be consistent with possible environmental factors. Significant associations with maternal age, pregnancy age, and birth order warrant additional study of pregnancy history in Asian CL±CP.

A series of 77 Swedish females with classical Rett syndrome were genealogically traced as far back as possible, in most cases to 1720-1750, or 7-10 generations. Details were collected concerning approximately 8,000 ancestors. Common ancestry was seen in 2 pairs of females with Rett syndrome. Thirty-nine of the 77 Rett females were traced to 9 small and separate rural areas, and 17 pairs even came from the same farm or homestead. The common origin was found equally often among descendants of the father as of the mother. In 9 cases, the father came from one and the mother from another of the 9 specific "Rett areas." These observations, combined with the finding of a raised rate of consanguineous marriages in the paternal as well as in the maternal ancestry, point to a genetic transmission. Analyses of parental ages at birth and of birth order gave normal results.

STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aim was to examine if there is an effect of fathers' age and of birth order on the occurrence of congenital heart disease. DESIGN--This was a hospital based case-referent study including use of birth defects surveillance data. SUBJECTS--Subjects were 497 cases of congenital heart disease aged between 3 months and 5 years, born in Beijing and Hebei Province, China; 6222 children without congenital heart disease serve as reference baseline. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--With stratified analysis and logistic regression analyses, congenital heart disease was found to be associated with fathers' age less than 25 years (odds ratio 2.63), independent of mothers' age and of birth order. There was also evidence to show a higher birth order effect on the occurrence of congenital heart disease independent of parental ages. CONCLUSION--Higher birth order and fathers aged less than 25 years were both independently associated with some categories of congenital heart disease and with congenital heart disease overall.

The mean birth ranks and parental ages at birth of persons of known phenotype were determined for a sample of 421 Australian residents characterized with respect to 14 genetic systems. Sex was found to influence birth rank but no variation with parity among 38 sets of phenotypes or factors was found. Differences were observed among the maternal ages of subjects possessing MM, MN and NN phenotypes and M+ and M- factors. Persons of type PGM1 1, 2-1 and 2 possessed significantly different paternal ages; this was associated with a positive linear regression of paternal age on the PGM1-1 gene dosage. The relevance of this type of study to investigations of disorders occurring at advanced parental age is pointed out.

From prenatal diagnosis data obtained on mothers aged 35 years and above in the Federal Republic of Germany (DFG data), older fathers are demonstrated to have an increased risk of having trisomy 21 offspring. For paternal ages of 41 years upward, the age effect is quite strong. The risk for a fetus to have any de novo chromosomal aberration increases more with advancing paternal age for older mothers than for younger ones. Thus the ages of both parents have to be taken into account as an indication for prenatal diagnosis. Risk figures for trisomy 21 and for any de novo chromosomal aberration are given, together with preliminary recommendations for prenatal diagnosis for different combinations of parental ages.

Three experiments on hatchability of Japanese quail eggs were conducted. Records on a total of 1829 eggs were taken. Parental ages from six to 11 weeks were studied and at the age of 8–9 weeks maximum hatchability of fresh eggs was attained. Effect of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (or maximum) lay was investigated in four lines of Japonica. Only at 25% lay were the results inferior to the other rates studied. Effect of preincubation storage of one day to 23 days on hatchability and length of incubation (time of hatch) was also studied. Length of incubation was found to be highly dependent on the length of preincubation storage of the eggs. Every additional day of storage increased the incubation time by 1.1 hours. Details of quail husbandry, feeding and rearing, are also outlined.

The hypothesis is stated that there is random genetic transmission of alcoholism within the sibships of alcoholics, regardless of possible environmental influences related to such objective factors as parental ages at birth, parental loss by death or permanent desertion, family size, birth order, ordinal position, sexes of siblings, and intervals between the patient and preceding and following siblings. A method of testing this hypothesis, with respect to family size, birth order and ordinal position, has been illustrated by extending the analysis of data on 110 male alcoholics previously recorded by another author. The corrected mean family size of 3.4 and modal family size of 1 are identical with those previously obtained by the present investigator for another sample of alcoholics. Empirically, a mode of 1 is not expected with a mean larger than about 2.6, and the corrected frequency of only children among both samples of alcoholics appears unduly high (over 25 per cent. of weighted frequencies in each instance). The goodness of fit between observed and expected frequencies of each birth order was such as might have been expected on the basis of chance about once in four trials. The observed frequency of youngest born from sibships having four or more members was at least twice that observed for either eldest, second born, or penultimate members. A deviation of this magnitude could have been expected to occur by chance only once in more than 15 trials. These findings suggest that the vulnerability of certain individuals to alcoholism is not determined solely by random genetic predisposition, and further more extensive tests of the initial hypothesis appear justified.

Mean parental ages at birth of 291 males admitted to the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals between 1 January 1949 and 31 December 1960 diagnosed as suffering from "320.6 pathological personality, sexual deviation, homosexuality" were calculated. The mean maternal age was compared with the expected value derived from the general population data after fully accounting for the steady decline in mean maternal age during this century. It was found to be higher than the expected value. A significantly higher paternal age was also found. The high maternal age was found to be secondary to the shift in the paternal age. These observations, accordingly, provide no support for any hypothesis that a cause of male homosexuality may be found in a biological factor related to the mother's age, e.g. by causing a chromosomal abnormality.

1. A sample of 500 admissions to a Scottish psychiatric hospital has been compared with a sample of similar size matched for age and sex from a local general practice. 2. In the control group a clear relationship exists between age and early parent death, indicating the need for matching for age. 3. The incidence of parent death before age 20 is significantly higher in patients under 40, but not in patients over 40. It is proposed that this may be due to the additional effect of recency in the younger patients. 4. The incidence of parent death before age 10 is significantly higher in the patient group. During this age-period loss of fathers alone and loss by daughters alone are significant. 5. The most marked difference between patients and controls occurs during the 0 to 4 age span, loss of both fathers and mothers alone and loss by daughters alone being significant. 6. The mean parental ages at birth for patients and controls who have suffered early parent death do not differ significantly, suggesting that parent death, and not parental age at birth, is the primary phenomenon.

Parental ages and birth order were analysed in 16 sporadic cases of inv dup (15) using the method of Smith. A significant maternal age effect was apparent (dm = 5.989, SE 1.86; df = 2.02, SE 2.496; db = 0.138, SE 0.46).

SummaryParental age (at patient's birth) and birth order were studied in 623 male and 89 female patients diagnosed as homosexual, who were born in England and Wales and first attended the Maudsley Hospital between the years 1961–1975. For male patients, mean parental ages were significantly higher than expectation, and mean birth order was significantly later. Regression analysis indicated that the raised fathers' age was probably of more aetiological importance than the raised mothers' age. The results confirm those of previous studies. The female patients did not show a raised parental age or late birth order.

Complete ascertainment of tuberous sclerosis was attempted in the west of Scotland (population 2,763,000). A total of 101 patients was identified, giving an overall minimum prevalence of 1 in 27,000, but for children under 10 years of age the minimum prevalence was 1 in 12,000. Both parents of 84 of the ascertained cases were assessed for signs of tuberous sclerosis. In 51 pairs of parents no evidence of the condition was seen, indicating that up to 60% of the cases were new mutations. The mutation rate was estimated at 2.5 X 10(-5) mutations per gene per generation. Analysis of parental ages for the new mutations did not show a significant age effect. Thirty-five patients occurred in 13 families containing other affected subjects. The pattern of inheritance was consistent with an autosomal dominant trait in these families. In one sibship, non-penetrance or gonadal mosaicism resulted in affected sibs with normal parents. Of two further sibships where non-penetrance was suspected, one was shown to represent a single new mutation in monozygotic twins and the other to involve non-paternity.

The parental ages of 220 subjects with Down's syndrome and 106 control subjects is analysed with respect to the possible changes in heterozygous frequency for serum haptoglobins and group specific proteins and for red cell acid phosphatases, phosphoglucomutases and glutamic pyruvic transaminases. The findings of Ball et al. (1972) of a positive linear regression of the proportion of male Down's subject heterozygous for haptoglobin on maternal age was confirmed and extended to the female, with both sexes showing changes in respect to paternal age. The increased number of the present sample revealed that this relationship was bimodal with a mode at 35 years for maternal age and 40 years for paternal age. In the other 4 polymorphic systems investigated, no change of heterzygote frequency could be detected.

A statistical method is developed for detecting a moderate effect on the incidence of a disorder caused by advancing age of one parent when it is known that advancing age of the other parent is of great aetiological importance. The method is a conditional test procedure given the parental ages, therefore no assumptions about the parental age distributions have to be made. The method is applied on Danish material on Down's syndrome, for which a paternal age effect is demonstrated. Methods used in some well-known previous investigations have been discussed. Several of them, e.g. the classical one of Penrose (1933), could hardly detect any paternal age effect in Down's syndrome on the available data, because these methods are heavily affected by certain fertility patterns not recognized previously.

Summary Birth weight and related variables are analysed in a sample of 960 babies born in three Swedish Maternity Clinics to mothers aged 42 years on more. The sample is analysed by sex and survival (1 week), and means and standard deviation are calculated accordingly. Correlation and partial correlation and analysis show that the variation in birth weight, which increases with parity, is associated more with succession of births than with parental ages. There is a significant deviation from independence of sex ratio with parity, and the highest contribution to x2 is given by the first parity. There is found a significant parabolic regression of sex ratio on parity. This indicates that parity per se is more relevant in determining the slight changes in sex ratio than parental ages, of which they are independent. The proportion of non-survivors is significantly higher than the comparable incidence for the general population of births in Sweden. The birth weight associated with the lowest mortality is higher than the means in both males and females. This has been estimated by the use of the 2 value of Penrose. During the preparation of this paper M. Fraccaro was a guest of the Gruppo di Ricerca 3B del CNEN, at the Institute of Genetics, Pavia. He wishes to thank Prof. L. L. Cavalli Sforza for his kind hospitality.

1. A sample of 500 admissions to a Scottish psychiatric hospital was compared with a sample of similar size from a local general practice. 2. A definite relationship between recent parent death and age was demonstrated in both the patient group and the general population. 3. Expected numbers of recent parent deaths, in relation to age and sex, were calculated from the general population group and compared with the observed numbers in the patient group. 4. When the complete 20 year period before admission was considered, the total number of parent deaths among the psychiatric patients corresponded closely with what would be expected over a comparable period in the general population. 5. Though the number of parent deaths occurring during the most recent ten year period before admission is similar to the expected numbers, a disproportionate and significantly higher number of parent deaths occurred in the patient group during the most recent five years of this period. During the less recent five years there was a significantly smaller number of parent deaths. 6. Within the most recent five year period, a greater than expected number of younger patients were found to have suffered recent father death, and a greater than expected number of older patients were found to have suffered recent mother death. 7. Within the same period parent loss by women was significantly greater than expected. 8. A more definite relationship was found between recent parent death and first admission than re-admission. 9. The marital status of those patients who had suffered recent parent death did not differ significantly from a group, matched for age and sex, who had not. 10. The mean parental ages at birth among patients and controls who suffered recent parent death were found to be similar, suggesting that parent death and not parental age at birth is the primary phenomenon.

Background There is evidence that paternal age may influence offspring telomere length, but the joint effects of father's and mother's age are unclear. We evaluated whether parental ages, individually and jointly, were associated with offspring telomere length and shortening. Methods We included 2305 British birth cohort participants with measured leukocyte telomere length (LTL) at age 53, among whom 941 had a second measurement at age 60–64. Linear regressions were performed to assess the associations of father's and mother's age at birth and the parental age gap, i.e. the difference between maternal and paternal age with LTL and LTL change. Results A one year increase in father's age corresponded to a 0.26% (95% CI: 0.04–0.47%) increase in offspring LTL at age 53 in the sex-adjusted model. No association was observed for mother's age. Associations of father's or mother's age with offspring LTL at age 53 went to opposite directions when both parental ages were included together. For the difference in parental age, every year that fathers were older than mothers corresponded to a 0.94% (95% CI, 0.38–1.50%) increase in LTL at age 53 after adjustment for potential confounders. Neither parental ages nor the difference in parental ages were correlated with LTL change. Conclusion There was a joint effect of parental ages on offspring telomere length, further denoting a complex role of reproductive age in offspring health and ageing.

The basis for recommending prenatal diagnosis for women 35 or older has been that they have most of the infants with Down's syndrome. The cost of testing these mothers has been considered less than the institutional care of many of their infants. We found this is no longer true. Infants with Down's syndrome are more likely to be born to mothers less than 35. This trend is also true of patients with Down's syndrome at institutions. Among 18,155 infants bom from 1972 to 1975 at the Boston Hospital for Women, there were 20 with Dram's syndrome. All had trisomy 21. 65% were born to women less than 35. Only 35% were born to women 35 or older. 7% of all mothers were 35 or older. In reviewing the ages of the parents of 187 persons with Down's syndrome living in an institution for the retarded, we found a steady decline in the parental ages between the 1920's and the 1960's. If most infants with Down's syndrome are to be identified by prenatal diagnosis, current recojimendations for the ages at which routine prenatal testing is reconmended must be changed.

Family planning means to have children in a desired number, each child at a desired time. Although the parental desire in this regard may be different in individual families, a more or less uniform pattern of reproduction would emerge from practicing family planning, since this need is conditioned by life circumstances that are rather common to all members of the society. Thus, if an appreciable fraction of a population practices it, a change in demographic trends, namely, decline in variances would be expected not only in the number of children per family but also in birth order and parental ages in live-birth data. As family planning is usually used to limit family size, a second sign would be decline in the mean number of children and the mean birth order, while the mean of the parental ages may scarcely be affected. The purpose of this paper is to review the