Parenthood can make Men and Women Live Longer

Having a child increases parents' chances of living longer, a new study from Denmark reveals.

The study reported online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that having at least one child lowers the risk of early death, especially for women. Researchers also found that adopting children cuts down the risks of mental illness among adoptive parents.

For the study, researchers looked at data included in different population registers in Denmark covering births, assisted conception procedures like IVF, hospital admissions and labor market statistics between 1994 and 2008.

They analyzed 21,276 childless couples opting for IVF treatment between 1994 and 2005.  The data also included details about 15,210 children born during that period and 1564 adopted children.

Investigators found about 96 women and 200 men dead and 710 women and 553 men detected with mental health problems during the same period.

According to the researchers, childless women are four times more likely to die from circulatory diseases (diseases related to heart, blood vessels or blood), cancers and accidents compared to women having a history of giving birth. These risks were cut by half in women who adopted children.

Similarly, childless men were found at double the risk of dying early compared to men having children, either biological or adopted.

Factors like age, educational attainment, income or illness were found having very little effect on the association.

"Mindful that association is not [the same thing as] causation, our results suggest that the mortality rates are higher in the childless," said the researchers in an official release. "Rates of psychiatric illness do not appear to vary with childlessness, but the rate of psychiatric illness in parents who adopt is decreased."