MATERNAL AGE AND BIRTH ORDER CORRELATIONS. PROBLEMS OF DISTINGUISHING MUTATIONAL FROM ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS,
Abstract
The associations of maternal age and birth order differences with differences in the risks of various diseases in the offspring have been studied for eighteen selected conditions using routine registrations of handicapped children, child deaths, and stillbirths, representing a total of 13556 affected individuals. Parental age and birth order information, where missing, was derived by computer 'linkages' of these records with the birth registrations. The analyses revealed examples of special risks to children of young and of old mothers, and to those of low and of high birth ranks. Increased risks with advancing maternal age do not, in general, appear to be associated with increased mutation rates. Shifts in the extents of such age correlations with birth rank point to interpretations in terms of possible environmental and social factors. Parental age studies may nevertheless provide, eventually, the best means available for detection and assessment of the combined consequences of mutations throughout the human genotype as a whole. Other approaches have serious limitations for this purpose, and the present approach is capable of refinement through use of social particulars in conjunction with parental age information. The study represents part of a continuing attempt to make systematic use of organized sources from which such data may be derived on a continuing basis. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 16, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0613085
Entities
People
- Howard B. Newcombe
- Olwyn G. Tavendale