The association of number of births on women’s biological aging,
premature mortality and life expectancy: a prospective cohort study of
UK biobank
Abstract
Objective: Few studies have examined whether number of births
is associated with women’s aging. This study aims to evaluate the
association of number of births with women’s biological aging, premature
mortality and life expectancy. Methods: A total of 272,494
participants from UK biobank who completed the questionnaire on number
of live births were enrolled at baseline. The number of births was
categorized into 6 groups, and participants with one live birth was the
reference group. General linear regression model and cox proportional
hazards model were performed to evaluate the association of number of
births with women’s biological aging and premature mortality. Restricted
cubic spline (RCS) was used to visualize dose-response relationship.
Moreover, the latest Office for National Statistics life tables rom was
used to calculate the life expectancy. Results: During a median
follow-up of 11.9 years, a total of 10,992 cases of all-cause premature
death were documented. After adjustment for potential confounders,
compared to women had one birth, childless women had greater premature
death (hazard ratio, HR=1.17, 95%CI: 1.09-1.25), whereas women with two
or three children had lower risk of premature death (HR=0.87,
95%CI:0.82-0.93, HR=0.90, 95%CI: 0.82-0.99), which showed a U-shaped
relationship visualized by RCS (P<0.05 for non-linearity).
Further, at age 40, childless women had 1.41 years lower life
expectancy, and women with two children was related to 1.10 years higher
life expectancy. Moreover, compared to women had one birth, the women
with two or three children had lower corrected estimated values of FI,
ΔKDM-biological age and HD, and the women with five or more children had
higher corrected estimated values of FI, ΔKDM-biological age, and HD
(all the P<0.05). Conclusions: The association of
number of live births with women’s biological aging, premature mortality
and life expectancy had a U-shape relation. The childless or five more
child women were more likely to be aging with increased risk of
premature death and decreased life expectancy years. The double-child
women decreased aging process with lower risk of premature death and
high life expectancy.