Faculty of Nursing, Université Laval, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada.
Research Center of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Québec G1L 3L5, Canada.
Hum Reprod Update. 2021 Feb 19;27(2):305-323. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmaa046.
There is a global tendency for parents to conceive children later in life. The maternal dimension of the postponement transition has been thoroughly studied, but interest in the paternal side is more recent. For the moment, most literature reviews on the topic have focused on the consequences of advanced paternal age (APA) on fertility, pregnancy and the health of the child.
The present review seeks to move the focus away from the biological and medical dimensions of APA and synthesise the knowledge of the other face of APA.
We used the scoping review methodology. Searches of interdisciplinary articles databases were performed with keywords pertaining to APA and its dimensions outside of biology and medicine. We included scientific articles, original research, essays, commentaries and editorials in the sample. The final sample of 177 documents was analysed with qualitative thematic analysis.
We identified six themes highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of APA research. The 'terminological aspects' highlight the lack of consensus on the definition of APA and the strategies developed to offer alternatives. The 'social aspects' focus on the postponement transition towards reproducing later in life and its cultural dimensions. The 'public health aspects' refer to attempts to analyse APA as a problem with wider health and economic implications. The 'psychological aspects' focus on the consequences of APA and older fatherhood on psychological characteristics of the child. The 'ethical aspects' reflect on issues of APA emerging at the intersection of parental autonomy, children's welfare and social responsibility. The 'regulatory aspects' group different suggestions to collectively approach the implications of APA. Our results show that the field of APA is still in the making and that evidence is lacking to fully address the issues of APA. The review suggests promising avenues of research such as introducing the voice of fathers of advanced age into the research agenda.
The results of this review will be useful for developing policies and preconception health interventions that consider and include prospective fathers of advanced age.
全球范围内，父母生育孩子的年龄呈推迟趋势。关于这一趋势的母性维度已得到深入研究，但对父性维度的关注则相对较新。目前，大多数关于该主题的文献综述都集中在高龄父亲（APA）对生育、妊娠和儿童健康的影响上。
本综述旨在将研究重点从 APA 的生物学和医学维度转移，综合 APA 另一面的知识。
我们采用了范围综述方法。使用与 APA 及其生物学和医学之外的维度相关的关键词，对跨学科文献数据库进行了检索。我们将科学文章、原始研究、论文、评论和社论纳入样本。对最终的 177 篇文献样本进行了定性主题分析。
我们确定了六个主题，突出了 APA 研究的跨学科性质。“术语方面”强调了 APA 缺乏共识和定义，以及为提供替代方案而制定的策略。“社会方面”关注的是向更晚生育的生育推迟转型及其文化维度。“公共卫生方面”指的是尝试将 APA 作为具有更广泛健康和经济影响的问题进行分析。“心理方面”关注的是 APA 和老年父亲身份对儿童心理特征的影响。“伦理方面”反映了在父母自主权、儿童福利和社会责任交叉点出现的 APA 问题。“监管方面”将不同的建议分组，以集体应对 APA 的影响。我们的研究结果表明，APA 领域仍在形成中，缺乏充分解决 APA 问题的证据。该综述提出了一些有前途的研究方向，例如将高龄父亲的声音引入研究议程。
本综述的结果将有助于制定政策和孕前健康干预措施，考虑并纳入高龄准父亲。
