Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Dec 29;77(12):2326-2337. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac091.
I work from a gendered life-course perspective to examine the association between older parents' fertility history (i.e., timing and parity) and their risk of cognitive impairment in the United States.
I analyze nationally representative data from 9 waves over 16 years of the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016). The sample includes 14,543 respondents (6,108 men and 8,435 women) aged 50 and older at the baseline survey. I examine the relationship between parity, age at first birth, and age at last birth with risk of cognitive impairment using nonlinear discrete-time hazard models.
Adjusting for the effects of full covariates, there are U-shaped relationships between women's age at last birth and risk of cognitive impairment and between women's parity and risk of cognitive impairment. In the sensitivity tests, the relationships remain robust when sampling weights are applied, or mortality selection is corrected.
Fertility timing and parity are likely factors associated with the risk of cognitive impairment for older women. Understanding fertility history and its impact on cognition can help identify the most vulnerable subpopulations, so that more effective interventions can be made to improve cognitive functioning among older adults.
我从性别生命周期的角度研究了美国老年父母的生育史（即生育时间和生育子女数）与认知障碍风险之间的关系。
我分析了来自健康与退休研究（2000-2016 年）16 年 9 个波次的全国代表性数据。样本包括基线调查时年龄在 50 岁及以上的 14543 名受访者（6108 名男性和 8435 名女性）。我使用非线性离散时间风险模型研究了初育年龄、首次生育年龄和最后生育年龄与认知障碍风险之间的关系。
在调整了全协变量的影响后，女性最后生育年龄与认知障碍风险之间存在 U 型关系，女性生育子女数与认知障碍风险之间也存在 U 型关系。在敏感性测试中，当应用抽样权重或校正死亡率选择时，这些关系仍然稳健。
生育时间和生育子女数可能是与老年女性认知障碍风险相关的因素。了解生育史及其对认知的影响，可以帮助确定最脆弱的亚人群，以便对老年人的认知功能进行更有效的干预。
