Fertility history, health, and health changes in later life: A panel study of British women and men born 1923–49

Read, Sanna; Grundy, Emily; Wolf, Douglas A.

doi:10.1080/00324728.2011.572654

Cited by 80 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…The timing of parenthood, and to some extent number of children, is socially patterned and strongly associated with levels of education. However, even taking account of this, previous studies suggest that early parenthood and high parity, as well as childlessness, are associated with poorer physical health in later life (Grundy & Read, 2015;Read, Grundy & Wolf, 2011). Lower socioeconomic position, poorer physical health, depression, and lack of control are all associated with poorer cognitive functioning (Agrigoroaei & Lachman, 2011;Brunner, 2005).…”

Section: Parenthood Social Relations and Cognitive Functionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Read

Grundy

2015

International Journal of Epidemiology

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Section: Parenthood Social Relations and Cognitive Functionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Read

Grundy

2015

International Journal of Epidemiology

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“…It offers several contributions to the broader literature. First, most previous studies of the relationship between age at first birth and health only assess health at a single point in time, however if a poorly timed transition to parenthood contributes to more general 'cumulative advantage' processes, it may also create differential change in physical health over time (a conjecture that is supported by Read, Grundy and Wolf's (2011) analysis). The analysis uses random coefficient growth modelling, and is therefore able to present some of the first evidence about the effect of first birth timing on rate of change in health.…”

Section: Contributionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…In the earliest study we are aware of, Kington, Lillard and Rogowski (1997) reported that women's parity was negatively associated with general health and that parities of six or higher were associated with an increased likelihood of physical role limitation. A number of studies have since confirmed a negative relationship between high parities and general or self-rated health status for women (Grundy & Holt 2000;Read, Grundy & Wolf 2011;Sudha et al 2006), although Hank (2010) found that high parity was positively related to self-rated health for West German women, and not related for their East German counterparts Hank (2010) also found that high parity was positively associated with self-rated health for West…”

Section: Fertility History and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Poorer general health and higher risk of disability or health limitations have also been found to be linked to early first births for men and women (Grundy & Holt 2000;Grundy & Tomassini 2005;Hank 2010;Kington, Lillard & Rogowski 1997;Read, Grundy & Wolf 2011;Spence 2008). In sum, early age at first birth has been consistently linked to poorer later-life outcomes across multiple aspects of health for men and women, with the exception of some cancers.…”

Section: Fertility History and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, by exploiting the longitudinal nature of the data, the analysis examines the effect of AFB on trajectories of physical health, including both level and rate of change. Almost all previous studies have assessed the impact of AFB on later life health at a single time point, with the sole exception being Read, Grundy and Wolf (2011) who report a panel data analysis of health limitations in the British population that includes age by AFB interactions. They find that the probability of having a health limitation increases with age at a faster rate for men and women who had an early first birth (although the effect is much larger for women).…”

Section: Empirical Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Family formation patterns and physical health in Australia: a life course approach

O’Flaherty¹

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Social science has long studied the relationships between processes of family formation and health, although empirical patterns in this domain of study are often variable, and their interpretation uncertain. Constrained by lack of suitable data, analytic techniques, and conceptual tools, work in this area has until recently been largely static, focussed on documenting and interpreting crosssectional associations between occupancy of family roles and health. However, as data and methodology matured and developed economies continued their transition away from the once dominant 'male breadwinner' model of the family, more sophisticated approaches that acknowledge the dynamic relationships between family formation and health have become both more feasible and more urgent.This thesis applies a life course approach to the study of family formation and health in the (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), and form the primary material for four empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter utilizes multichannel sequence analysis and growth models to investigate how holistic patterns of family formation (incorporating both partnership and fertility trajectories from ages 18-50) are associated with trajectories of physical health at ages 51 and older. For men, family life course trajectories characterized by early family formation, failure to marry, or early divorce without subsequent remarriage are found to be predictive of poorer health outcomes, while for women only those who experienced high fertility paired with a disrupted marital history were found to be in poorer health than those who experienced a normatively 'standard' family life course.The second, third, and fourth empirical chapters focus on different aspects of the relationship between parental age at first birth and later life heath. The first of these contextualizes changes in first birth timing in historical context, presents a descriptive analysis of the characteristics of younger/older first time mothers and fathers, and uses multinomial logistic regression to assess the contribution of early-life family and socio-economic disadvantage, health, and cognitive and noncognitive skills to first birth timing. Consistent with prior research, background family disadvantage and age at school leaving was found to have strong effects on birth timing, in particular for women.ii There was also some evidence of health selection into early first birth, with the largest effects again found for women.The third empirical chapter considers the effect of first birth timing on long-term health outcomes (ages 41 and older). In addition to the primary issue of whether there is an effect of birth timing on health, the analysis pays particular attention to several research questions: first, which pre- as mechanisms, as changes at the time of the parenthood transition and in the years thereafter did not differ depending on age at first birth. Younger parents do experience potentially harmful changes in alcohol use and soc...

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Fertility experiences and later‐life cognitive function among older adults in China

Yang

Zhang

et al. 2022

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives: The relationship between fertility history and human health has long fascinated scholars; however, whether there is a link between number of children and cognitive function in older adults remains unclear. We investigated the associations between parity and the timing of first and last births with the cognitive function of older adults over 65. Methods:The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was selected as a tool to measure cognitive function. We analyzed data on 5847 older adults in rural and urban communities in China from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey using ordinary least squares. To further explore the transmission mechanism, we also conducted a mediating effect analysis.Results: We found a negative association between number of children and cognitive function in older adults. Compared with older adults with four children, the MMSE scores of older adults with more than five children decreased significantly, and the score of older adults with zero to three children increased. Further, a late age at first birth (≥35) and a late age at last birth (≥35) were negatively associated with cognitive function. We also found that the associations between parity and cognition might be partly explained by variations in health. Conclusion:Our analyses provided evidence from China to support the link between fertility history and cognitive function that has been observed in previous international studies: We suggest that high parity (≥5) is negatively associated with cognitive function.

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Fertility history, health, and health changes in later life: A panel study of British women and men born 1923–49

Cited by 80 publications

References 57 publications

Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Family formation patterns and physical health in Australia: a life course approach

Fertility experiences and later‐life cognitive function among older adults in China

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