Posted by
AJH on Tuesday, June 03, 2008 2:32:00 PM
I am using “symbolic interactionism” as a way to interpret this aging issue. Aging is complicated and multidimensional. My particular focus is on older men and younger women as intimate couples. Recently a study was released, which was widely reported in the media, on the medical implications of children whose fathers are more than 40 years old at birth.
How people interpret these relationships is quite interesting, with those who see a double standard, where its much more difficult for women to be with younger men, although clearly this is changing. Two examples come to mind, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and the late Tony Randall and his very young wife. Randall had a new baby at the age of 77.
The study, out of Denmark and published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, was expansive with 100,000 children. Some of the children were tracked for as long as 18 years. The scientists concluded that such children born to older fathers are almost twice as likely to die before adulthood. Apparently there are substantially increased rates of disease and illness, including birth defects, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy and heart disease.
Those born to fathers older than 45 are up to 88 per cent more likely to die before their 19th birthday than those born to men 25 to 29 years old. There were 831 deaths, 601 in the first year of life, many due to congenital problems. Les Sheffield, clinical geneticist at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, believes its time for men to reevaluate having children later in life.
“Men around 40 ought to be thinking about the increased risk to their children, the same as women do,” he said. “I speak to a lot of older parents and they talk about the women's risk, but when I talk about the father's risk they are just aghast because nobody has ever mentioned the father before.”
Administration on Aging (AoA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
http://www.aoa.gov
Healthy Aging, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/aging/
National Council on Aging
http://www.ncoa.org
Senate Special Committee on Aging
http://aging.senate.gov