Is Later Better or Worse? Association of Advanced Parental Age With Offspring Cognitive Ability Among Half a Million Young Swedish Men
Is Later Better or Worse? Association of Advanced Parental Age With Offspring Cognitive Ability Among Half a Million Young Swedish Men
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DOI：
10.1093/aje/kws237
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发表时间：
2013-04-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Rasmussen, Finn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Myrskylae, Mikko;Silventoinen, Karri;Rasmussen, Finn
在发达国家，父母的年龄越来越大，推迟生育可能会对后代的认知能力产生负面影响。然而，关于母亲和父亲年龄的影响，没有确凿的证据。我们已经能够通过使用解释兄弟共有的固定父母特征的方法来减少或消除未观察到的混淆。对565,433名瑞典男性（1951年至1976年出生队列）的父母年龄与智商（IQ）之间的关系进行了分析，并在征兵考试（年龄在17岁至20岁之间）中测量了智商。当我们通过调整出生年份来解释智商时间趋势时，父亲年龄的增加与后代的智商没有关联；然而，母亲年龄超过30岁与子女数量呈负相关。例如，40-44岁母亲的后代智商比25-29岁母亲的后代智商低0.07个标准差（P < 0.001）。然而，智商的趋势抵消了年龄的影响，因为没有出生年份的调整，高龄母亲与智商呈正相关。虽然结果证实母亲的年龄与后代负相关，但这种关联很小，推迟生育导致后代的智商得分更高，因为智商测试得分呈阳性趋势。
Parental ages are increasing in the developed world, and postponed parenthood may have a negative association with the cognitive ability of offspring. There is, however, inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of both maternal and paternal ages. We have been able to reduce or eliminate unobserved confounding by using methods that account for fixed parental characteristics shared by brothers. Associations between parental age and intelligence quotient (IQ) among 565,433 Swedish males (birth cohorts 1951 to 1976) were analyzed, with IQ measured at conscription examinations (given between ages 17 and 20 years). When we accounted for the IQ time trend by adjusting for birth year, advanced paternal age showed no association with offspring IQ; however, maternal ages above 30 years were inversely associated with offspring 10. For example, maternal ages 40-44 years were associated with an offspring IQ that was 0.07 standard deviations lower than that for maternal ages 25-29 years (P < 0.001). However, the IQ trend more than offset the impact of age, as without birth year adjustment, advanced maternal age was positively associated with IQ. Although the results confirmed that maternal age was negatively associated with offspring 10, the association was small enough that delaying parenthood resulted in higher offspring IQ scores because of the positive IQ test score trend.