Is young fatherhood causally related to midlife mortality? A sibling fixed-effect study in Finland

Einiö, Elina; Nisén, Jessica; Martikainen, Pekka

doi:10.1136/jech-2015-205627

Cited by 16 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Previous studies which have analysed samples of men or women have shown that younger parents have worse health in terms of mortality,1 2 6 27 heart disease2 28–30 and cancer,2 and our study extends this work to objectively measured cardiovascular risk factors. Unlike our study, few of the previous studies have accounted for mediation through socioeconomic position, health behaviours and other adult factors, such as work and partnership status, instead often including either health behaviours or socioeconomic position.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Most previous research has focused on the health of women; however, more recently, work on age at first birth and later health has been extended to look at the long-term health of young fathers. A recent study showed that young fatherhood was associated with higher mortality in Finland largely due to cardiovascular disease and higher allostatic load in England 6 7. Research comparing men and women is useful for unpicking biological versus other explanations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors in the 1958 British birth cohort

Lacey

Sacker

McMunn

2017

J Epidemiol Community Health

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BackgroundTo assess relationships between age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors in a large longitudinal study of men and women. By assessing associations for both genders, we were able to investigate biological versus social and behavioural explanations from early life through to adulthood.MethodsMultiply-imputed data on more than 7600 men and women of a British birth cohort study (National Child Development Study, 1958 British birth cohort) were used. Cardiovascular risk factors at age 44/45 years included body mass index, waist:hip ratio, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), cholesterol (total, low and high-density lipoprotein), triglycerides, glycated haemoglobin, C reactive protein, von Willebrand factor and fibrinogen. Age at first birth was categorised as <20 years, 20–24 years, 25–29 years, 30–34 years or >34 years.ResultsBeing younger than 20 years of age at time of first birth was associated with an adverse cardiovascular profile by mid-life. Conversely, older parents had a lower cardiovascular risk as captured by lower body mass index, waist:hip ratio, blood pressure, high and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, glycated haemoglobin, C reactive protein and fibrinogen. The relationship between age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors was graded. Few differences between men and women were observed. Associations were largely unchanged after adjustment for early life factors but were partially mediated through adult social and behavioural factors.ConclusionsAge at first birth is inversely associated with differences in cardiovascular risk factors in mid-life in a large prospective birth cohort. Our results potentially suggest a social and behavioural rather than a biological explanation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors in the 1958 British birth cohort

Lacey

Sacker

McMunn

2017

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…Non-normative, i.e. too early, timing of entering parenthood is suggested to cause stress particularly among women due to conflicting time demands (Bacon, 1974), but normatively too early parenthood may cause stress also for men (Einiö, Nisén, & Martikainen, 2015;Sigle-Rushton, 2005). Delay of parenthood may reduce this stress, and leave more time to complete other transitions to adulthood, including attainment of education.…”

Section: Delay Of Parenthood and Educational Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gendered impacts of delayed parenthood on educational and labor market outcomes: a dynamic analysis of population-level effects over young adulthood

Nisén

Bijlsma

Martikainen³

et al. 2019

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Later parenthood is often beneficial for women, but less is known about its impact on men. As first births continue to occur later in life, it is important to understand whether this delay influences the educational and labor market outcomes of women and men differently, and how it changes the socioeconomic characteristics of children's parents at birth. However, education, employment, and fertility are linked, implying that complex models are required in order to analyze the time-varying impacts of delayed parenthood. We use dynamic longitudinal models and Finnish data to analyze how, and through which socioeconomic mechanisms, a material delay in parenthood is likely to influence educational and labor market outcomes over young adulthood. A three-year delay in young-adult parenthood for all women increases educational enrollment in their early 20s, employment in their late 20s, and partly due to higher education income in their 30s. The impact of the same delay for men is more modest, and almost negligible for their employment, suggesting that later parenthood exacerbates the educational advantage of women and attenuates the income advantage of men. However, it strengthens the socioeconomic standing of both men and women when they become parents, essentially due to the accumulation of effects.

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“…Two recent studies using SFE with Finnish and Swedish register data extend this result to mortality, although both are based on sibling rather than twin data (Barclay et al 2016;Einio, Nisen & Martikainen 2015). Einio, Nisen and Martikainen (2015) address the relationship between AFB and Finnish fathers' mortality risk, and find that older AFB is negatively related to mortality, with little difference between ordinary survival models and the SFE variant.…”

Section: Empirical Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Einio, Nisen and Martikainen (2015) address the relationship between AFB and Finnish fathers' mortality risk, and find that older AFB is negatively related to mortality, with little difference between ordinary survival models and the SFE variant. Barclay et al (2016) similarly find that early first birth timing contributes to higher mortality risk, for Swedish men and women, and for all-cause mortality as well as mortality caused by neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system, external causes, and other causes.…”

Section: Empirical Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Is young fatherhood causally related to midlife mortality? A sibling fixed-effect study in Finland

Abstract: The findings suggest a causal effect of young fatherhood on mortality and highlight the need to support young fathers in their family life to improve health behaviours and health.

Cited by 16 publications

References 39 publications

Age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors in the 1958 British birth cohort

Age at first birth and cardiovascular risk factors in the 1958 British birth cohort

The gendered impacts of delayed parenthood on educational and labor market outcomes: a dynamic analysis of population-level effects over young adulthood

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

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