Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Read, Sanna; Grundy, Emily

doi:10.1093/ije/dyv096.220

Cited by 10 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It could also be possible that those who have poor underlying health have fewer opportunities to have offspring. Third, since only a small proportion of subjects had 5 or more children, we categorized number of off-spring into 0, 1, 2, 3, and >=4 as in previous studies using this variable 7,32 , and did not study the difference among those who have 4, 5, or more offspring. Fourth, brain health is only a small part of overall health condition of the body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parity is associated with cognitive function and brain age in both females and males

Ning

Zhao

Franklin

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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previous studies of the association between parity and long-term cognitive changes have primarily focused on women and have shown conflicting results. We investigated this association by analyzing data collected on 303,196 subjects from the UK Biobank. We found that in both females and males, having offspring was associated with a faster response time and fewer mistakes made in the visual memory task. Subjects with two or three children had the largest differences relative to those who were childless, with greater effects observed in men. We further analyzed the association between parity and relative brain age (n = 13,584), a brain image-based biomarker indicating how old one's brain structure appears relative to peers. We found that in both sexes, subjects with two or three offspring had significantly reduced brain age compared to those without offspring, corroborating our cognitive function results. Our findings suggest that lifestyle factors accompanying having offspring, rather than the physical process of pregnancy experienced only by females, contribute to these associations and underscore the importance of studying such factors, particularly in the context of sex. Pregnancy involves dramatic hormonal and physiological changes. In part due to these large changes, the effect of pregnancy on cognitive and cardiovascular health has been studied 1,2. Declined cognitive function was observed during pregnancy 1,2. Researchers have also hypothesized that hormonal changes, which occur both during and after pregnancy, drive the association between parity (number of offspring) and cognitive function in later life. Multiple studies have investigated this association in females, though different conclusions have been found. Some studies found that parity was associated with better episodic memory and had a protective effect against Alzheimer's disease (AD) 3,4. Contrarily, parity has been associated with poor word recall score, Mini Mental State Exam score, and AD neural pathology 5,6. A recent study of approximately 10,000 male and female subjects found an association between the number of offspring and cognitive function in later life in both sexes, including memory and executive function, and suggested that socioeconomic status largely accounted for the association 7. In addition to the association between cognitive function and parity, the association between brain structural change and parity has been studied previously. Hoekzema et al. reported that the volume of certain gray matter regions was reduced during pregnancy and the reductions did not recover for at least 2 years post partum 2 , while others reported that the gray matter restoration process was evident within the first few months postpartum 8,9. Most studies on the association between brain structure and parity had a relatively small sample size (n < 100) and less than three years of postpartum follow-up 2,8,9. To date, it is still unclear if there are any long-term effects of parity on brain structure in the mid-to-old age population. We therefore so...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parity is associated with cognitive function and brain age in both females and males

Ning

Zhao

Franklin

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Studies of developed countries typically find a J- or U-shaped association between parity and all-cause mortality, with childless, low or high parity (4, 5 or more children) having higher mortality than parents of 2 or 3 children (Barclay et al 2016; Dior et al 2013; Doblhammer 2000; Grundy 2009; Grundy and Tomassini 2005). Lifetime childlessness is associated with long-term illness (Grundy and Tomassini 2005), poorer midlife physical function for men (Guralnik et al 2009), and poorer cognition (Read and Grundy 2017) in later life. Nulliparity is also associated with higher mortality from cancer, respiratory diseases and cardiovascular disease (Barclay et al 2016; Einiö et al 2016), suggesting that health behaviours such as smoking play a role, and that those who become parents either already had more healthy habits, or modified their health behaviours as parenthood provides greater social control and incentives to live healthily (Umberson et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertility History and Physical and Mental Health Changes in European Older Adults

Keenan

Grundy

2018

Eur J Population

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Previous studies have shown that aspects of reproductive history, such as earlier parenthood and high parity, are associated with poorer health in mid and later life. However, it is unclear which dimensions of health are most affected by reproductive history, and whether the pattern of associations varies for measures of physical, psychological and cognitive health. Such variation might provide more insight into possible underlying mechanisms. We use longitudinal data for men and women aged 50-79 years in ten European countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to analyse associations between completed fertility history and self-reported and observed health indicators measured 2-3 years apart (functional limitations, chronic diseases, grip strength, depression and cognition), adjusting for socio-demographic, and health factors at baseline. Using multiple imputation and pattern mixture modelling, we tested the robustness of estimates to missing data mechanisms. The results are partly consistent with previous studies and show that women who became mothers before age 20 had worse functional health at baseline and were more likely to suffer functional health declines. Parents of 4 or more children had worse physical, psychological and cognitive health at baseline and were more likely to develop circulatory disease over the follow-up period. Men who delayed fatherhood until age 35 or later had better health at baseline but did not experience significantly different health declines. This 123Eur J Population https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-018-9489-x study improves our understanding of linkages between fertility histories and later life health and possible implications of changes in fertility patterns for population health. However, research ideally using prospective life course data is needed to further elucidate possible mechanisms, considering interactions with partnership histories, health behaviour patterns and socio-economic trajectories.

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“…Previous studies have shown that young fathers are more likely to have poorer health and higher mortality rates than men who delay fatherhood (Barclay, Keenan, Grundy, Kolk, & Myrskyla, 2016; Einiö, Nisen, & Martikainen, 2015; Grundy & Kravdal, 2010; Grundy & Read, 2015; Grundy & Tomassini, 2006; Heath, Mckenry, & Leigh, 1995; Mirowsky, 2002; Mirowsky & Ross, 2002; Pudrovska & Carr, 2009; Read, Grundy, & Wolf, 2011; Read & Grundy, 2017; Sigle-Rushton, 2005). These findings are consistent, regardless of the health outcomes studied or methodological differences between the studies, including differences in defining young fathers, their comparison groups, and age at health assessment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies that analyze physical and mental aspects of health show that young fatherhood is associated with poorer health and higher mortality (Barclay et al, 2016; Einiö et al, 2015; Grundy & Foverskov, 2016; Grundy & Kravdal, 2010; Grundy & Read, 2015; Heath et al, 1995; Lacey, Kumari, Sacker, & McMunn, 2017; Mirowsky, 2002; Mirowsky & Ross, 2002; Read et al, 2011; Read & Grundy, 2017; Sigle-Rushton, 2005). In some of these studies, men were older, and they were younger in other studies when their health was measured.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in the Nordic mortality studies, deaths were observed from age 45 until age 55 (Einiö et al, 2015) or until ages 52–80 (Barclay et al, 2016) or ages 46–68 (Grundy & Kravdal, 2010), depending on the cohort's age at the end of the study. The studies based on the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing assessed health at ages older than 50 or 52 (Grundy & Read, 2015; Read & Grundy, 2017), whereas other studies assessed health at ages younger than 40 (Heath et al, 1995) or already at age 30 (Sigle-Rushton, 2005). Despite these differences in the timing of health assessment, young first-time fathers appeared to experience poorer health in most studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is the relationship between men's age at first birth and midlife health changing? Evidence from two British cohorts

Einiö

Goisis

Myrskylä

2019

SSM - Population Health

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Becoming a father, particularly for the first time, is a central transition in men's lives, and whether this transition takes place early or later in life may have important ramifications on the whole later life course. Previous research has shown that men who father their first child early in life have poorer later-life health than men who postpone having children. However, it is not known how selection by cognitive ability and other childhood characteristics confound the association between the timing of fatherhood and later-life health, or how the association is changing over time as parenthood is postponed to an older age. We investigate the association between men's age at the birth of their first child and midlife self-rated health in two British cohorts born in 1958 and 1970. The study employs logit models. Relative to men who had their first child when they were between 25 and 29 years old, men who had their first child before the age of 20 have the poorest health, followed by men who had a child when they were 20–24 years old. This result was observed in both cohorts. Childhood cognitive ability, which previous research has not analyzed, strongly contributed to this association, and to a greater extent than other childhood characteristics. For the 1970 cohort, those who became fathers at age 35 or older had the best health. This advantage was not found for the 1958 cohort. These findings suggest that the relationship between young age at fatherhood and midlife health is strongly confounded by cognitive ability, and that in recent cohorts a new pattern of advantage among older fathers has emerged.

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Fertility History and Cognition in Later Life.

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

Parity is associated with cognitive function and brain age in both females and males

Parity is associated with cognitive function and brain age in both females and males

Fertility History and Physical and Mental Health Changes in European Older Adults

Is the relationship between men's age at first birth and midlife health changing? Evidence from two British cohorts

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