Children born to older mothers tend to be taller, healthier and better educated than siblings who were born before them. Those were the findings of new study by Mikko Myrskylä of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Kieron Barclay of the London School of Economics, published this week in the Population and Development Review. Barclay and Myrskylä looked at data from more than 1.5 million Swedish men and women born between 1960 and 1991, examining the relationship between a mother's age at time of birth, and height, fitness and educational attainment of her children. They found that, as years progress, people are getting steadily healthier and education opportunities are improving - and thus it pays to be born later. The researchers compared siblings who shared the same parents and who grew up in the same household environment.

"By comparing siblings who grew up in the same family it was possible for us to pinpoint the importance of maternal age at the time of birth independent of the influence of other factors that might bias the results," said Barclay.

"The benefits associated with being born in a later year outweigh the individual risk factors arising from being born to an older mother," added Myrskylä.

"We need to develop a different perspective on advanced maternal age. Expectant parents are typically well aware of the risks associated with late pregnancy, but they are less aware of the positive effects."

Source: Adam Boult -  The Telegraph