Evening star., 1940-07-27
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henri.

A paradox has been uncovered by
United States Public Health Service
statisticians who have analyzed records
of II 900 900 births in the United States
over period of five years-the fact that
the age of father has a direct rela-
tionship to newborn baby's chances
of survival and also to the probability of
death of the mother.
Both the rates of infant loss and child
birth fatalities are high for young faith
ers, at minimum for fathers between
the ages of IS and "a, and then 20 up
rapidly with increasing age, forming
two U-shaped curves.
These rates, the study brought out, are
independent of the age of the mother
or of the order of birth. Both these
factors also result in the same sort of
U-shaped curves, which, however, do
not coincide with those built on the age
of the male parent.
Drs. Jacob Yerushalmy Carroll E.
Palmer and Morton Kramer of the Pub
lie Health Service staff are completely
at loss to explain the phenomenon.
The study was undertaken in an effort
to uncover just such hidden factors in
the infant and maternal death rates of
the United States which remain strange
ly high in spite of medical advances and
prenatal care, which is probably the
best in the world.
They found that a significant factor
was the age of the mother and the
order of birth. Thus of first children
the rate of stillbirths and neonatal NOR
tality in New York State over a period
of three years was 60 per 1000. For Sec
ond births it sank to As per 1000 Then
it increased steadily for each child born
in family. For eighth and ninth chill
dren it was close to 100 per 1000.
The same general curve held for the
deaths of mothers according to age. For
the first child it was % per 10000. For
the third child the death rate of moth
ers sank to l8 per 10000 and rose to So
per 10000 for the eighth and ninth
children.
constantly increasing percentage of
all births, it is pointed out in the statis-
tlclans' report. are first births. Thus
this hitherto hidden factor becomes of
considerable significance in the NOR
tality rates.
Some relationship of this sort was ex-
pected, but the role of the father came
as complete surprise The relation
ship between age of the male parent
and the child's chances Of surviving was
quite marked 1t was independent of
the age of the mother. This was deter
mined by complex statistical procedure
for, generally speaking, young husbands
have young wives old husbands old
wives, and first babies usually have
young fathers. But there were enough
exceptions to show the direct influence
of the male parent with the mother and
the order of birth eliminated from the
calculations
So far as the child's chances of sur
Vlval are concerned. the statisticians saw,
something of the sort might be expected,
although the physiological factors cam
not be explained at present In some
way children of young and old fathers
seem to come into the world with a trif1e
less vitality 1t would probably be un-
measurable by any physiological tests,
but, considering that the possibility of
child being born alive or surviving the
first few days of life probably depends
on delicate balance, it is sufficient to
determine the difference between death
and survival.
The relationship between age of father
and death of mother is less marked but
appears distinctly enough when the total
number OF births are analyzed. This
variation, they say, "iS independent of
the correlation between the age of hus-
band and wife, since it is present in
nearly every age group of wives. 1t is
not consequence of the association be-
tween infant loss and age of the father,
since the same pattern of the rates with
age OF husband exists also when all the
mothers of stillbirths and neonatal
deaths have been excluded. 1t is also
unlikely that these variations are due to
order OF birth, since the same variation
with age of husband is exhibited on
mortality OF mothers of first births only.
NO simple explanation for the relation
ship Is apparent. 1t is difficult to see
how the age of the husband could affect
the mortality of his wife and the ques-
ton requires much more detailed study
on much larger number of births
The study also showed, the statisti-
clans report, curious correlations be-
tween deaths of mothers and babies
from different causes and the age of
the mother and order of birth. Thus
stlllbrths were frequent among first
borns of young mothers, while various
infections Immediately after birth were
OF increasing importance with older
mothers and later babies.