Using Swedish national registers, researchers identified 5,936 individuals with autism and 30,923 children without autism, the ‘control’ group, born in Sweden since 1932. For each child they had data on their maternal and paternal grandfathers’ age of reproduction and details of any psychiatric diagnosis.
They found that men who had a daughter when they were 50 or older were 1.79 times more likely to have a grandchild with autism. Men who had a son increased the risk of their grandchild having autism by 1.67 times, compared to men who had children when they were 20 to 24-years-old.
Autism is known to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Previous studies have shown that older paternal age is a risk factor for autism in children, with fathers aged 50 or over doubling the risk of their children being diagnosed with the disorder.
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