Peer-reviewed article
Paternal age and offspring bone health and body composition at 20 years: Findings from the Raine study.
Mia A Percival, Kun Zhu, John P Walsh, Marc Sim, Kara B Anderson et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined whether a father's age during pregnancy is associated with bone health and body composition in adult offspring. Using data from the Raine cohort study in Australia, researchers measured bone density and body composition in 1,142 young adults aged 20 years and compared results by their fathers' ages at pregnancy. Offspring of younger fathers (around 25 years) had slightly higher bone density and bone mass than offspring of older fathers, but paternal age was not associated with fat or lean body mass.
Key points
- Fathers' mean age was 31 years (range 15-58 years)
- Offspring of fathers in the lowest age quartile (median 25 years) had 1.7-2.1% higher bone mineral density than those in older quartiles
- Offspring of youngest fathers had 2.1-2.3% higher bone mineral content than those of fathers aged 30-33 years
- Paternal age was not significantly associated with offspring fat mass or lean mass
- Associations between paternal age and bone measures were complex and nonlinear
Limitations
This observational study cannot establish causal mechanisms for how paternal age affects offspring bone development. The study measured outcomes only at age 20, so long-term effects beyond early adulthood are not known.
Abstract
AIMS: There is growing evidence supporting paternal contributions to child health. Previous findings from the Vitamin D In Pregnancy study suggest that advanced paternal age is associated with a range of poorer bone measures for offspring at age 11 years. Whether these associations are evident when peak bone mass is attained remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate associations between paternal age and offspring bone health and body composition at age 20 years. METHODS: Data from the Raine study, a multigenerational cohort, were used. Among 1183 offspring with total body DXA data (Norland XR-36 densitometer) at the 20-year follow up, 1142 with information on their father's age were included in this analysis. Linear regression and restricted cubic spline models were developed to examine associations of offspring bone and body composition outcomes at 20 years and paternal age during pregnancy (16-20 weeks' gestation). RESULTS: Fathers' mean age was 31 years (SD 6.6, range 15-58). Restricted cubic spline models adjusted for sex, maternal, paternal and offspring factors revealed complex, nonlinear associations between paternal age and total body bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC). Offspring of fathers in the lowest quartile (Q1) of paternal age (median age 25 years) had between 0.018 g/cm2 to 0.023 g/cm2 higher BMD (1.7-2.1%) than those in Q2 (median age 30 years), Q3 (33 years) and Q4 (39 years) and between 61 g and 67 g (2.1-2.3%) higher BMC than those of Q2 and Q3. Paternal age was not significantly associated with offspring total body lean or fat mass in linear regression models. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that paternal age in pregnancy is associated with offspring total body bone mass, but not body composition in early adulthood (~20 years). Further confirmatory studies are warranted to better establish the intergenerational effects of paternal age on bone health.