A newly released study of 2.8 million babies born between 1995 and 2000 ties some newborn risks including low birth weight and mortality to having a father younger than age 20.
The interesting part of this study is that it focuses on the father and not the mother. The study allowed for women in peak child bearing years between 20 and 30 in order to remove the associated risk factors for teen mothers. Most of the fathers were in their 20s or 30s but 28,000 of them were younger than age 20.
It was this younger age group that seemed to comprise a surprising number of higher risk newborns when compared to the others. The researchers don’t look at overall socio-economic group or other outside factors but they do say that this may indicate that there is a biological impact based on the father’s youth as well as with the mother.
