Childbearing History and Health in Later Life: Comparing Men and Women in Southern Sweden 1766-1895

Martin Dribe, Lund University

This paper analyzes the impact of childbearing history on later life mortality for men and women using high-quality historical longitudinal micro-level data for southern Sweden. The main advantage of using historical data is that it makes it possible to investigate the experience of many birth cohorts with medium- to high fertility, thereby facilitating estimation of effects of number of births as well as timing of first and last births. The dataset also allows a comparison of the effects between men and women, which is of vital importance when assessing the likely mechanisms behind the relationship between childbearing history and health in later life. The analysis is made using survival analysis of mortality in ages 50 and older, including covariates on number of births, age at first and last births, and also controlling for various socioeconomic, demographic and family specific conditions of the individuals.