Paternal age and spontaneous abortion.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the influence of paternal age upon spontaneous abortion.


METHODS
This case-control study of 13,865 women draws on data from women's antenatal or postpartum interviews in the Jerusalem Perinatal Study, a population-based cohort derived from 92,408 births in 1964-1976. Case women (n=1,506) reported spontaneous abortion in the pregnancy preceding the interview; they were compared with women reporting live births in their previous pregnancy (n=12,359). Logistic regression was used to adjust for maternal age, maternal diabetes, maternal smoking, history of spontaneous abortions before the index pregnancy, parity at interview, and interval between the index pregnancy and the interview.


RESULTS
The adjusted odds ratio for spontaneous abortion was 0.59 (95% confidence interval 0.45-0.76, P< .0001) for pregnancies conceived from fathers aged younger than 25 years compared with those from fathers aged 25-29 years. For fathers age 40 years or older the odds ratio for spontaneous abortion was 1.6 (95% confidence interval 1.2-2.0, P=.0003) when compared with the same reference group.


CONCLUSIONS
Increasing paternal age is significantly associated with spontaneous abortion, independent of maternal age and multiple other factors.
Kleinhaus
K
K
Epidemiology Department, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA. krk6@columbia.edu
Perrin
M
M
Friedlander
Y
Y
Paltiel
O
O
Malaspina
D
D
Harlap
S
S
D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008423:Maternal Age; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010331:Paternal Age; D011247:Pregnancy