Sans enfant ou reproductrice acharnée : même combatVous êtes une femme ? Vous n’avez pas d’enfant ? Vous en avez cinq ou plus ? Vous en avez moins, mais vos enfants ont moins de 18 mois d’écart entre eux ? Gare à votre santé au troisième age, et gare à ne pas mourir plus jeune que les autres, car vous êtes sur la mauvaise pente. C’est en tout cas ce que révèle une étude du Conseil de la recherche économique et sociale (ESRC) britannique. Les résultats se fondent sur trois bases de données, britanniques et américaines, sur des femmes nées à partir de 1911. Pour Emily Grundy, responsable de cette étude, si l’on savait déjà que les tous premiers temps de vie avaient une influence sur la santé et la mortalité ultérieure, c’est la première fois que l’on met en lumière l’impact de la parenté et du mode d’appariement, tous contextes socio-économiques confondus. Si l’élevage d’enfants à la chaîne semble délétère pour la santé, le mariage ou toute forme de relation sentimentale stable et durable, au contraire, auraient un effet protecteur pour les femmes comme pour les hommes. Un père de plusieurs enfants rapprochés, s’il cumule en plus un ou plusieurs divorces et séparations, risque de ne pas faire de vieux os. Idem pour les femmes s’étant reproduites avant 21 ans : leur santé, mentale en particulier, est bien plus médiocre à 53 ans que celles qui ont un peu plus attendu. Les principaux facteurs seraient pour Emily Grundy les stress psychologiques et physiques induits par ces expériences. Néanmoins, en ce qui concerne les femmes sans enfants, le communiqué de presse n’est pas très bavard. Par contre, les femmes donnant naissance à leur premier enfant à plus de 40 ans auraient aussi plus de chances de perdurer dans l’existence. Même si Emily Grundy conçoit ici que le fait de mettre un enfant si « tard » au monde est la preuve d’une bonne santé préalable. On comprend maintenant pourquoi Madonna est la reine du monde !**
Public release date: 11-Sep-2006
Contact: Annika Howard
annika.howard@esrc.ac.uk44-017-934-13119
Economic & Social Research Council
Childless women risk poorer health in later life
Childless women run the risk of earlier death and poorer health in later life. A new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) finds that not only childless women but also mothers of five or more children, teenage mothers and mothers who have children with less than an 18 month gap between births all have higher risks of death and poor health later in life.
Findings are based on a study of three separate datasets of women born from 1911 onwards in Great Britain and the USA. "We already know quite of lot about the impact of a person's very early life or their socio-economic history on health and mortality in later life," explains researcher Professor Emily Grundy of the Centre for Population Studies, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London. "But, in this study we were able to analyse the long-term health implications of a person's partnership and parenting experiences while taking into account education and other indicators of socio-economic status as well."
The study reveals that partnership and parenting experiences are important influences on later life health. "We show, for example, that having a short birth interval of less than 18 months between children carries higher risks of mortality and poor health," Professor Emily explains. "That finding is particularly interesting because, to our knowledge, it's the first time that later health consequences of birth intervals have been investigated in a developed country population."
Fathers whose wives have short birth intervals also appear to suffer slightly increased mortality risks. Researchers suggest that the physiological and psychosocial stresses associated with caring for young children close in age may be the important factor.
This study also provides further evidence of the link between teenage motherhood and poorer health in later life. It also reveals that teenage mothers have poorer mental health at age 53 than other mothers. "What's particularly interesting here is that our findings indicate poorer health outcomes for women who have children before age 21 regardless of their socio-economic circumstances in childhood," Professor Grundy points out. Previous research has shown that many teenage mothers had already experienced poor health in early childhood. But, this study indicates the higher risks of poorer later life health for teenage mothers whatever their background.
At the other end of the motherhood age scale, this study reveals that women who have a child over the age of 40 experience better health in later life. But the reason, researchers suggest, is not necessarily that having children later makes women healthier rather that women who conceive at that age must already be in good health and feel fit enough to bring children up.
In terms of the influence of partnership on later life health and mortality, this study confirms other research which indicates that marriage provides more health gains for men than women. For men, spending a long time in a stable marriage and avoiding multiple marriages and divorce contributes to long-term health.
For women, too, marriage may be better for their health than they currently believe. The study shows that when self-rating their health, married women report poorer health than unmarried women. But the mortality rates of unmarried women are higher than those of married women.
"We have shown that partnership and parenting histories are important influences on later life health and, in many cases, are as influential as the effects of a person's socio-economic status," Professor Gundy concludes. "Overall, these findings clearly have important implications for projections of the health status of the older population as well as contributing to our understanding of life course influences on health."
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Professor Emily Grundy on 0207 299 4668 or
Email:
Emily.grundy@lshtm.ac.ukOr Alexandra Saxon
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. The research project 'Partnership and parenthood history and health in mid and later life' was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Professor Emily Grundy and Dr Cecilia Tomassini are based at the Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 49-51 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP. Professor Mike Wadsworth and Ms Suzie Butterworth are from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development group at University College London and Professor John Henretta heads the Department of Sociology, University of Florida.
2. Methodology: In this study, researchers used data from three nationally representative longitudinal data sets, the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) (Great Britain); the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (ONS LS) (England & Wales) and the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) (USA). Researchers used a range of bivariate and multivariate methods in their analyses. The outcome measures they analysed included mortality (both overall and cause specific); general indicators of health status (such as self-rated health and limiting long-term illness) and a range of specific morbidities, including indicators of psychological health.
3. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC total expenditure in 2005-06 was £135million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk 4. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research (formerly accessible via the Regard website) and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk5. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peer review. This research has been graded as 'good.'
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