Father’s Age, Behavior Linked to Birth Defects
For decades, researchers have known that a pregnant mother’s diet, hormone levels, and psychological state can affect her offspring’s development, altering organ structure, cellular response, and gene expression. It is now becoming clear that a father’s age and lifestyle at the time of conception can also shape health outcomes for his offspring.
Older fathers have offspring with more psychiatric disorders, possibly because of increased incidence of mutations in sperm.
A 2016 article by Joanna Kitlinska and colleagues in the American Journal of Stem Cells reviewed findings from human and animal studies about the links between fathers’ behaviors and their offspring’s development.
Father’s behavior can shape gene expression through a phenomenon described as epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to environmental influences on the way genes are transcribed. While a father’s behavior is not registered in his DNA sequences, it can influence the structure of his DNA or the way in which it is packaged.
Kitlinska suggests that these types of findings should eventually be organized into recommendations for prospective parents. More research is also needed into how maternal and paternal influences interact with each other.
Some findings from the article:
- A newborn can have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder even if the mother doesn’t drink. “Up to 75% of children with [the disorder] have biological fathers who are alcoholics,” says Kitlinska.
- Father’s alcohol use is linked to low birth weight, reduced brain size, and impaired cognition.
- Dad’s obesity is linked to enlarged fat cells, diabetes, obesity, and brain cancer in offspring.
- A limited diet in a father’s early life may reduce his children and grandchildren’s risk of death from cardiovascular causes.
- Dad’s advanced age is correlated with higher rates of schizophrenia, autism, and birth defects in his children.
- Psychosocial stress on dads can affect their children’s behavioral traits.
