RESUMO
As an important life event in individuals' life, childbirth will affect the health of women to different degrees. More and more attention has been paid to whether the number of births will affect the incident diabetes in elderly women, but there are few related studies. Based on the data of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey in 2018, 6,159 older women are selected as the study population. Logistic regression analyses are used to estimate the relationship between the number of births and diabetes risk. For each additional birth, the odds ratio of maternal diabetes will decrease by 6.9% and the result is significant at the 1% level, especially among mothers having four children or less. The conclusion is equally applicable in the sample of fathers and urban mothers, but the increase in the number of births will increase the risk of diabetes in rural mothers, although this result is not statistically significant. Later age at first birth, later age at last birth, the longer childbearing period, and birth interval will significantly reduce the risk of diabetes.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the impact of fertility during the childbearing period on the longevity of older rural Chinese women and verifies whether any trade-off exists between women's longevity and their number of children to provide empirical evidence for improving health intervention policies and formulating active fertility policies in low-fertility countries. METHODS: Based on the data of the deaths of 1623 older adults aged 65 and above during 2014-2018 in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, this study explores the relationship between the number of children born and older rural women's longevity using the ordinary least squares method. Furthermore, the impact of fertility on the longevity of men and women in rural and urban areas, along with other reproductive behaviours on older rural women's longevity, were analysed. RESULTS: There was a significant negative correlation between the number of children born and women's longevity (ß = - 0.555, p < 0.05). Additionally, their longevity exhibited a decreasing trend with having birthed more sons and an increasing trend with more daughters. Age at first and last births had a significant positive relationship with rural women's longevity; however, the effect of fertility on the longevity of older rural and urban men and older urban women was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: It is confirmed that there is a trade-off between fertility and longevity for rural women in China. Future research should focus on compensating for the decline in female longevity caused by the number of children born and promote the concept of a healthy pregnancy, scientific nurture, and gender equality in fertility.
