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Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries
OBJECTIVES: Previous evidence about the impact of parenthood on health for older adults is mixed, perhaps due to variation in number of children and context. Higher numbers of children could lead to support or strain, depending on individual and country contexts. Yet, no studies currently exist that...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10645313/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37622727 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad123 |
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author | Antczak, Radoslaw Quashie, Nekehia T Mair, Christine A Arpino, Bruno |
author_facet | Antczak, Radoslaw Quashie, Nekehia T Mair, Christine A Arpino, Bruno |
author_sort | Antczak, Radoslaw |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: Previous evidence about the impact of parenthood on health for older adults is mixed, perhaps due to variation in number of children and context. Higher numbers of children could lead to support or strain, depending on individual and country contexts. Yet, no studies currently exist that examine associations between the number of children and several health indicators among older adults across multiple global regions. METHODS: We analyze cross-sectional data (1992–2017) of 166,739 adults aged 50+ across 24 countries from the Health and Retirement Study family of surveys to document associations between the number of children, treated as a categorical variable, and 5 health outcomes (self-rated health, activities of daily living limitations, instrumental activities of daily living limitations, chronic conditions, and depression). We perform multivariable analyses by estimating logistic regression models for each country and each outcome. RESULTS: Multiple comparisons between categories of number of children revealed at least 1 significant difference in each country, and a majority of significant differences indicated those with more children had poorer health. The risk of poorer health for parents of multiple children was observed in 15 countries, but in some countries, fewer children predict poorer health. The greatest number of differences was identified for depression and chronic conditions, and very few for functional limitations. DISCUSSION: We observe a greater probability that more children are associated with poorer health in later life, especially for chronic conditions and depression. However, a universal global or regional pattern could not be identified. These findings raise new questions about how country contexts shape fertility and health. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10645313 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-106453132023-11-15 Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries Antczak, Radoslaw Quashie, Nekehia T Mair, Christine A Arpino, Bruno J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences OBJECTIVES: Previous evidence about the impact of parenthood on health for older adults is mixed, perhaps due to variation in number of children and context. Higher numbers of children could lead to support or strain, depending on individual and country contexts. Yet, no studies currently exist that examine associations between the number of children and several health indicators among older adults across multiple global regions. METHODS: We analyze cross-sectional data (1992–2017) of 166,739 adults aged 50+ across 24 countries from the Health and Retirement Study family of surveys to document associations between the number of children, treated as a categorical variable, and 5 health outcomes (self-rated health, activities of daily living limitations, instrumental activities of daily living limitations, chronic conditions, and depression). We perform multivariable analyses by estimating logistic regression models for each country and each outcome. RESULTS: Multiple comparisons between categories of number of children revealed at least 1 significant difference in each country, and a majority of significant differences indicated those with more children had poorer health. The risk of poorer health for parents of multiple children was observed in 15 countries, but in some countries, fewer children predict poorer health. The greatest number of differences was identified for depression and chronic conditions, and very few for functional limitations. DISCUSSION: We observe a greater probability that more children are associated with poorer health in later life, especially for chronic conditions and depression. However, a universal global or regional pattern could not be identified. These findings raise new questions about how country contexts shape fertility and health. Oxford University Press 2023-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC10645313/ /pubmed/37622727 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad123 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences Antczak, Radoslaw Quashie, Nekehia T Mair, Christine A Arpino, Bruno Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title | Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title_full | Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title_fullStr | Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title_full_unstemmed | Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title_short | Less Is (Often) More: Number of Children and Health Among Older Adults in 24 Countries |
title_sort | less is (often) more: number of children and health among older adults in 24 countries |
topic | THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10645313/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37622727 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad123 |
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