Sironi Maria, Ploubidis George B, Grundy Emily M
Department of Social Science, University College London, 55-59 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0NU, United Kingdom.
UCL Center for Longitudinal Studies, University College London, 55-59 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0NU, United Kingdom.
Demography. 2020 Apr;57(2):529-558. doi: 10.1007/s13524-020-00855-x.
Research on the later-life health implications of fertility history has predominantly considered associations with mortality or self-reported indicators of health. Most of this previous research has either not been able to account for selection factors related to both early-life and later-life health or has had to rely on retrospectively reported accounts of childhood circumstances. Using the 1958 National Child Development Study, and in particular the biomedical survey conducted in 2002-2003, we investigate associations between fertility histories (number of children and age at first and at last birth) and biomarkers for cardiometabolic risk and respiratory function in midlife among both men and women. Results from models that adjusted for a very wide range of childhood factors, including early-life socioeconomic position, cognitive ability, and mental health, showed weak associations between parity and biomarkers. However, we found an inverse association between age at first birth and biomarkers indicative of worse cardiometabolic health, with poorer outcomes for those with very young ages at entry to parenthood and increasingly better outcomes for those becoming parents at older ages. A very young age at last birth was also associated with less favorable biomarker levels, especially among women. Results highlight the value of prospectively collected data and the availability of biomarkers in studies of life course determinants of health in midlife and later.
生育史对晚年健康影响的研究主要关注其与死亡率或自我报告的健康指标之间的关联。此前的大多数此类研究要么无法考虑与早年和晚年健康相关的选择因素，要么不得不依赖对童年情况的回顾性报告。利用1958年全国儿童发展研究，特别是2002年至2003年进行的生物医学调查，我们调查了生育史（子女数量、首次生育年龄和末次生育年龄）与中年男性和女性心脏代谢风险及呼吸功能生物标志物之间的关联。对包括早年社会经济地位、认知能力和心理健康等广泛童年因素进行调整后的模型结果显示，生育胎次与生物标志物之间的关联较弱。然而，我们发现首次生育年龄与表明心脏代谢健康较差的生物标志物之间存在负相关，初为人父母时年龄非常小的人结果较差，而年龄较大时成为父母的人结果越来越好。末次生育年龄非常小也与不太理想的生物标志物水平相关，尤其是在女性中。结果凸显了前瞻性收集数据的价值以及生物标志物在中年及以后健康的生命历程决定因素研究中的可用性。
