ABSTRACT
To determine the effect of paternal age on preterm births in Iranian neonates. From January 2005 to January 2006, two hundred eighty one preterm neonates born in Mirza Kuchakkhan Hospital enrolled in this cross-sectional study. A structured questionnaire was applied for recording following data: birth weight, sex, gestational age, maternal age and paternal age. The study was limited to neonates whose maternal age was between 20 and 30 years to eliminate its confounding effect. Near 50% of fathers were between 30-39 years old and more than half of neonates had gestational age between 35-37 weeks. There were no relation between either paternal age [p= 0.1] or birth weight [p=0.5] and neonatal gestational age. In women with parity one, there was not significant difference between gestational age among different paternal age levels [p= 0.6] as well as women with parity two and three [p=0.2, p=0.3]. Paternal age has no effect on gestational age and birth