Number of children and risk of dementia: a cohort study

BackgroundFindings on the link between the number of children and dementia risk are inconsistent, mostly studied in females, suggesting pregnancy-related changes may be a key factor in this association.MethodsThe Adult Changes in Thought Study is a cohort of adults aged ≥65 years from Kaiser Permane...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979) Jg. 79; H. 4; S. 280 - 287
Hauptverfasser: Wolfova, Katrin, Hubbard, Rebecca A, Brennan Kearns, Pavla, Chang, Virginia W, Crane, Paul, LaCroix, Andrea Z, Larson, Eric B, Tom, Sarah
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.04.2025
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
Schlagworte:
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer's disease
Child & adolescent mental health
Children
COGNITION
Cognitive ability
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
DEMENTIA
Dementia - epidemiology
Dementia - etiology
Dementia disorders
Education
Families & family life
Family Characteristics
Female
Females
Great Depression
Health care
Humans
Influence
Life course epidemiology
Male
Males
Mental depression
Mothers
Original research
Parity
Pregnancy
Proportional Hazards Models
Risk Factors
Sociodemographics
Socioeconomic Factors
Variables
Washington - epidemiology
Washington
United States > US
DEMENTIA
Life course epidemiology
COGNITION
Parity
ISSN:0143-005X, 1470-2738, 1470-2738
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Zusammenfassung:BackgroundFindings on the link between the number of children and dementia risk are inconsistent, mostly studied in females, suggesting pregnancy-related changes may be a key factor in this association.MethodsThe Adult Changes in Thought Study is a cohort of adults aged ≥65 years from Kaiser Permanente Washington. The primary exposure was the number of children (0, 1, 2, 3 or ≥4), and the outcome was an incident dementia diagnosis. Cox proportional-hazards models were adjusted for demographic and early-life socioeconomic confounders. Models were then stratified by sex and by birth year <1928 versus ≥1928.ResultsAmong 4668 participants (average age at enrolment 74.1±SD 6.3 years; 59% female), 967 (21%) had 0 children, 484 (10%) had one child, 1240 (27%) had two children, 968 (21%) had three children and 1009 (22%) had four or more children. We found no association between the number of children and dementia overall or after stratification by birth cohort. When stratified by sex and adjusting for confounders, having ≥4 children compared with two children was associated with a higher rate of dementia in males (HR=1.31, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.71).ConclusionsThe number of children was not consistently associated with the risk of dementia. We observed a greater risk of dementia only among males who had ≥4 children, with the lower bound of the 95% CI marginally exceeding 1. These findings suggest that the number of children may influence the risk of dementia through other than pregnancy-related pathways.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0143-005X
1470-2738
1470-2738
DOI:10.1136/jech-2024-222717