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Angry Jesus writes:

About a month ago a study (abstract) was published about how a father's age affects the psychiatric health of his children. Due to a misleading press release about the study's results, it was widely reported that children born to father over 45 years of age were 3.5 times more likely to have autism, 13 times more likely to have ADHD, 2 times more likely to have a psychotic disorder, 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder, and 2.5 times more likely to have suicidal behavior or a substance abuse problem.

But statistical analysis is hard and non-intuitive, particularly for people who aren't expert statisticians. It turns out that the real-life rates of psychiatric problems are significantly less, putting this most recent study's results in line with those of previous related studies.

1. "a study" - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24577047
2. "misleading press release" - http://herman-research.blogspot.com/2014/03/this-is-original-version-of-dr.html
3. "widely" - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/health/mental-illness-risk-higher-for-children-of-older-parents-study-finds.html?_r=0
4. "reported" - http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/26/children-older-men-mental-illness-fathers-school
5. "real-life rates of psychiatric problems are significantly less," - http://herman-research.blogspot.com/2014/03/misinformation-about-findings-of.html

printed from SoylentNews, Bad Math to Blame for Hype About Older Fathers on 2023-05-26 17:39:13