Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Younger or older parental age has been linked with a range of adverse offspring endpoints. We investigated associations between parental age and nine adverse offspring outcomes in three correlated domains: (i) Premature death: suicide, unnatural death, natural death; (ii) Psychiatric morbidity: any mental illness, suicide attempt, substance misuse; (iii) Criminality: violent offending, imprisonment, driving whilst intoxicated.Methods
Persons born in Denmark 1966-1996 were followed from their 15th until 40th birthday or December 2011 (N=1,793,681). Incidence rate ratios were estimated.Results
Offspring of teenage mothers had the greatest risks for all nine adverse outcomes, especially for imprisonment, violent offending, substance misuse, and attempted suicide. Teenage fatherhood was also associated with elevated risks for offspring adverse psychiatric and criminality outcomes, but not premature mortality (at ages 15-39 years). For the psychiatric and criminality outcomes there was a U-shape trend linked with paternal age, but risks for premature mortality tended to increase with rising paternal age. On the contrary, maternal age 30 years and over was not linked with raised risks for any of the outcomes examined.Limitations
Parental links are based on legal and not biological relationships.Conclusions
The substantially elevated risks linked with teenage motherhood for a variety of poor offspring outcomes is a concern for clinicians and policymakers. The associations observed across such a wide array of adverse outcomes also suggest that multiple causal mechanisms may be implicated.
SUBMITTER: Mok PLH
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5754320 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Mok Pearl L H PLH Antonsen Sussie S Pedersen Carsten Bøcker CB Webb Roger T RT
Journal of affective disorders 20161002
<h4>Background</h4>Younger or older parental age has been linked with a range of adverse offspring endpoints. We investigated associations between parental age and nine adverse offspring outcomes in three correlated domains: (i) Premature death: suicide, unnatural death, natural death; (ii) Psychiatric morbidity: any mental illness, suicide attempt, substance misuse; (iii) Criminality: violent offending, imprisonment, driving whilst intoxicated.<h4>Methods</h4>Persons born in Denmark 1966-1996 w ...[more]