RESEARCH ARTICLE
Maternal age and offspring developmental vulnerability at age five: A population-based cohort study of Australian children Kathleen Falster1,2,3*, Mark Hanly1, Emily Banks2,4, John Lynch5,6, Georgina Chambers1, Marni Brownell7, Sandra Eades8, Louisa Jorm1
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1 Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2 National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 3 Centre for Social Research Methods, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 4 The Sax Institute, Sydney, Australia, 5 School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, 6 School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, 7 Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 8 Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia *
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OPEN ACCESS Citation: Falster K, Hanly M, Banks E, Lynch J, Chambers G, Brownell M, et al. (2018) Maternal age and offspring developmental vulnerability at age five: A population-based cohort study of Australian children. PLoS Med 15(4): e1002558. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002558 Academic Editor: Jenny E Myers, University of Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM
Abstract Background In recent decades, there has been a shift to later childbearing in high-income countries. There is limited large-scale evidence of the relationship between maternal age and child outcomes beyond the perinatal period. The objective of this study is to quantify a child’s risk of developmental vulnerability at age five, according to their mother’s age at childbirth.
Received: October 17, 2017
Methods and findings
Accepted: March 21, 2018
Linkage of population-level perinatal, hospital, and birth registration datasets to data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) and school enrolments in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), enabled us to follow a cohort of 99,530 children from birth to their first year of school in 2009 or 2012. The study outcome was teacherreported child development on five domains measured by the AEDC, including physical health and well-being, emotional maturity, social competence, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. Developmental vulnerability was defined as domain scores below the 2009 AEDC 10th percentile cut point. The mean maternal age at childbirth was 29.6 years (standard deviation [SD], 5.7), with 4,382 children (4.4%) born to mothers aged
