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Leeftijd moeder en autisme*
Uit een Zweedse analyse van diverse studie onder ruim 25.000 kinderen met autisme blijkt dat kinderen van moeders die bij de geboorte 35 jaar of ouder waren wel 30% meer kans hebben op autisme. Kinderen van moeders jonger dan 20 bleken zelden autisme te hebben. De kinderen werden vergeleken met gegevens van ruim 8 miljoen kinderen zonder autisme. Volgens de onderzoekers zijn er mogelijk verschillende oorzaken, zoals de genen die kunnen veranderen met het ouder worden, maar ook langere blootstelling aan vervuilende stoffen in het milieu.
Higher maternal age increases risk of autism
In a new study from Karolinska Institutet and the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, researchers have analyzed past studies to investigate possible associations between maternal age and autism spectrum disorder. While much research has been done to identify potential genetic causes of autism, the current analysis suggests that non-heritable and environmental factors may also play a role in children's risk for autism.
The researchers compared the risk of autism in different groups of material age hey found that children of mothers older than 35 years had 30 percent increased risk for autism. Children of mothers under 20 had the lowest risk of developing autism. The association between advancing maternal age and risk for autism was stronger for male offspring and children diagnosed in more recent years.
The analysis included 25,687 cases of autism spectrum disorder and over 8.6 million control subjects, drawn from the 16 epidemiological papers that fit inclusion criteria for the study as defined by the investigators. The researchers identified and discussed several potential underlying causes of the association between maternal age and risk for autism, such as increased occurrence of gene alteration during the aging process and the effects of exposure to environmental toxins over time.
"The study makes us confident there is an increased risk for autism associated with older maternal age, even though we do not know what the mechanism is", says lead author Sven Sandin of Karolinska Institutet and the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. 
All studies were controlled for paternal age which is an independent risk factor for autism. This finding adds to the understanding that older age of the parents could have consequences to the health of their children.
Publication:
Sven Sandin, Christina M. Hultman, Alexander Kolevzon, Raz Gross, James H. MacCabe & Abraham Reichenberg 
Advancing Maternal Age Is Associated With Increasing Risk for Autism: A Review and Meta-Analysis
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Volume 51, Issue 5, May 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2012.02.018 
Advancing Maternal Age Is Associated With Increasing Risk for Autism: A Review and Meta-Analysis
· Sven Sandin, M.Sc. , · Christina M. Hultman, Ph.D., · Alexander Kolevzon, M.D., · Raz Gross, M.D., M.Ph., · James H. MacCabe, MRCPsych, Ph.D., · Abraham Reichenberg, Ph.D.
Objective
We conducted a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies investigating the association between maternal age and autism.
Method
Using recommended guidelines for performing meta-analyses, we systematically selected, and extracted results from, epidemiological scientific studies reported before January 2012. We calculated pooled risk estimates comparing categories of advancing maternal age with and without adjusting for possible confounding factors. We investigated the influence of gender ratio among cases, ratio of infantile autism to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and median year of diagnosis as effect moderators in mixed-effect meta-regression.
Results
We found 16 epidemiological papers fulfilling the a priori search criteria. The meta-analysis included 25,687 ASD cases and 8,655,576 control subjects. Comparing mothers ≥35 years with mothers 25 to 29 years old, the crude relative risk (RR) for autism in the offspring was 1.52 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12–1.92). Comparing mothers ≥35 with mothers 25 to 29, the adjusted relative risk (RR) for autism in the offspring was 1.52 (95% CI = 1.12–1.92). For mothers <20 compared with mothers 25 to 29 years old, there was a statistically significant decrease in risk (RR = 0.76; 95% confidence interval = 0.60–0.97). Almost all studies showed a dose-response effect of maternal age on risk of autism. The meta-regression suggested a stronger maternal age effect in the studies with more male offspring and for children diagnosed in later years.
Conclusions
The results of this meta-analysis support an association between advancing maternal age and risk of autism. The RR increased monotonically with increasing maternal age. The association persisted after the effects of paternal age and other potential confounders had been considered, supporting an independent relation between higher maternal age and autism.
(Mei 2012) 

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