Do people without children live longer?

[kimera]

It depends on the country you live in, whether you have more sons or daughters (sons drain more from the mother), and how early you start having children.

Cite:

RESULTS: Women with a history of six or more completed pregnancies were found to be disadvantaged in educational attainment, financial resources, and health status compared with women with no or fewer pregnancies. When current sociodemographic factors were controlled, six or more pregnancies were associated with worse general health and worse physical role functioning. When sociodemographic factors and number of births were controlled, among women with at least one delivery, women who had experienced an infant’s death reported worse health as measured by all three indices. Women with a first delivery before the age of 18 were more likely to report a functional limitation. CONCLUSIONS: Women with high parity status, a history of an infant’s death, and an early first pregnancy may be at greater risk of poor health in later life.

cite

MAIN RESULTS–Nulliparous women had higher mortality than parous women in all age groups. Parity showed a weak association with increasing mortality among high parous women. Lowest mortality was found for parous women with 2-4 children and a late first and last birth, adjusted for socioeconomic group by level of women’s education. CONCLUSION–The findings indicate that postponed childbearing may benefit the health of women.

cite

Late Children Enhance Female Longevity

[Shot_From_Guns]

@kimera

whether you have more sons or daughters (sons drain more from the mother)

I wonder if there’s any difference between matrilocal or patrilocal societies that way.

[KarlGauss]

The problem with the studies you cite, kimera, is that they deal exclusively with women. In other words, the significant and well-recognized long-term effect of pregnancies (or not) complicates such studies interpretation, and probably also their validity with respect to men. And, even though those studies made attempts to control for socio-economic status and education (hugely important influences on mortality), such correction is seldom adequate.

OTOH, the study I cited above deals with both men and women. Likewise, it deals with all Norwegians and thereby will have better internal control of socio-economic variables. If you have the inclincation, read the introduction to that study for a nice overview of the problem.

[KarlGauss]

kimera; I realize I may sound pompous telling you “to read” something. That’s not the case at all. I am simply trying to dissociate gravid status from consideration of the “pure” question of whether people without children live longer. Sorry if I seemed rude.

[Harriet_the_Spry]

Controlling for SES and education is of course important, but I haven’t seen anything controlling for the health of the mother/ parents. Poor health is associated with lower fertility, and people who know they carry genes for hereditary conditions may choose not to have kids.

While the original question was just “who lives longer,” it’s important to recognize the lack of evidence (so far in this thread, anyway) that a given individual will live longer for having had children. If someone’s infertility is due to Type 1 diabetes starting in childhood, their longevity probably already took a big hit. If someone knows ALS runs in their family, it may take them at an early age whether or not they have a child.

This article discusses the lack of evidence that having children makes people happier: The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines