TY - JOUR
T1 - Association between number of children and mortality of mothers
T2 - Results of a 37-year follow-up study
AU - Dior, Uri P.
AU - Hochner, Hagit
AU - Friedlander, Yechiel
AU - Calderon-Margalit, Ronit
AU - Jaffe, Dena
AU - Burger, Ayala
AU - Avgil, Meytal
AU - Manor, Orly
AU - Elchalal, Uriel
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by the National Institute of Health ( RO1 CA80197 ).
PY - 2013/1
Y1 - 2013/1
N2 - Purpose: To examine the association between parity and long-term, all-cause mortality and mortality owing to specific causes in women. Methods: This prospective population-based study included 40,454 mothers who gave birth in Western Jerusalem, Israel, to 125,842 children and were followed for an average of 37 years after the birth of their first child. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate long-term total and specific-cause mortality of women by their parity. Results: We found a U-shaped relationship between the number of offspring and risk of all-cause mortality in mothers. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and maternal health and obstetric conditions, higher mortality rates were observed for mothers of 1 child (hazard ratio [HR], 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.4), mothers of 5 to 9 children (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09-1.33), and mothers of 10 or more children (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.12-1.99) compared with mothers of 2 to 4 children. Mortality risk from specific causes including coronary disease, circulatory disease, and cancer were increased for multiparous women. Conclusions: In this long-term follow-up study, there was an association between number of children and mortality risk for mothers. These findings suggest that maternal pregnancies and postnatal characteristics as reflected by number of children may have consequences for long-term maternal health.
AB - Purpose: To examine the association between parity and long-term, all-cause mortality and mortality owing to specific causes in women. Methods: This prospective population-based study included 40,454 mothers who gave birth in Western Jerusalem, Israel, to 125,842 children and were followed for an average of 37 years after the birth of their first child. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate long-term total and specific-cause mortality of women by their parity. Results: We found a U-shaped relationship between the number of offspring and risk of all-cause mortality in mothers. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and maternal health and obstetric conditions, higher mortality rates were observed for mothers of 1 child (hazard ratio [HR], 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.4), mothers of 5 to 9 children (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09-1.33), and mothers of 10 or more children (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.12-1.99) compared with mothers of 2 to 4 children. Mortality risk from specific causes including coronary disease, circulatory disease, and cancer were increased for multiparous women. Conclusions: In this long-term follow-up study, there was an association between number of children and mortality risk for mothers. These findings suggest that maternal pregnancies and postnatal characteristics as reflected by number of children may have consequences for long-term maternal health.
KW - Mothers' mortality
KW - Parity
KW - Socioeconomic factors
KW - Survival
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870850764&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.10.005
DO - 10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.10.005
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C2 - 23176782
AN - SCOPUS:84870850764
SN - 1047-2797
VL - 23
SP - 13
EP - 18
JO - Annals of Epidemiology
JF - Annals of Epidemiology
IS - 1
ER -
