Health Care News
Study finds correlation between maternal age and autism
Feb/28/2010
Wiley InterScience 
The Los Angeles Times recently reported on a California study that found that mothers over the age of 40 are nearly twice as likely to have a child with autism as mothers under 25. The father’s age seemed to have little to no impact on whether or not the child was born autistic. While it has long been believed that parental age contributes to a child’s risk for developing autism, there has been contradictory data on how big a role age plays and how that role varies between mothers and fathers.
Researchers say they are not trying to place blame on parents, but rather to suggest that there is a correlation warranting further research.
An abstract of the study is available from the journal Autism Research here.