TapCorrelation

There was a report of the news this morning that a study had shown that older fathers, those over 40, were more likely to have autistic children. The study also said that they could not find a similar correlation for older mothers.

Just from the statistical point of view, this doesn’t ring true with me. In the majority of families, fathers and mothers are of a similar age, a big difference is uncommon. So if there is a high correlation between the age of the father and the age of the mother and also, as reported, a correlation between the age of the father and the incidence of autism then it follows that there must be a similar correlation to the age of the mother, just perhaps not quite so clear cut.

Apparently the study was of families in Israel but I wouldn’t have thought that the social structure was significantly different there.

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