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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Does having children extend life span?
— a genealogical study of parity and longevity in the Amish | | Author(s) | Patrick F McArdle, Toni I Pollin, Jeffrey R O'Connell |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 61A, no 2, February 2006 |
| Pages | pp 190-195 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Longevity ; Life span ; Religion ; Parents ; Children [offspring] ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The relationship between parity and longevity is uncertain, with evidence of both positive and negative relationships being reported previously. The authors evaluated this issue by using genealogical data from an Older Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a population characterised by larger nuclear families, homogeneous lifestyle, and extensive genealogical records. The analysis was restricted to a set of 2015 individuals who had children, were born between 1749 and 1912, and survived until at least age 50. Pedigree structures and birth and death dates were extracted from Amish genealogies, and the relationship between parity and longevity were examined using a variance component framework. Life span of fathers increased in linear fashion with increasing number of children (0.23 years per additional child), while life span for mothers increased linearly up to 14 children (0.32 years per additional child), but decreased with each additional child beyond 14. Among women, but not men, a later age at last birth was associated with longer life span. Adjusting for age at last birth obliterated the correlation between maternal life span and number of children, except among mothers with ultra high (>14 children) parity. The authors conclude that high parity among men and later menopause among women may be markers for increased life span. Understanding the biological and/or social factors mediating these relationships may provide insights into mechanisms underlying successful ageing. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070109220 A |
| Classmark | BGA: BG6: TR: SR: SS: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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