Only child or multiple children? The number of children and cognition in older Chinese parents

IF 1.4 4区医学 Q4 GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY

Australasian Journal on Ageing Pub Date : 2025-03-05 DOI:10.1111/ajag.70009

Yunlong Song, Lizhi Guo, Hui Zhu, Bin Yu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the number of children and cognitive function trajectories among older Chinese parents.

Methods

A total of 6723 individuals (55% men) aged 50 years and older were followed for 7 years as part of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Cognitive function was assessed through episodic memory and mental status tests. The number of children was dichotomised as ‘only child’ and ‘multiple children’. Linear mixed models were used, with the number of children at baseline as the predictor. Covariates including social-demographic factors, health behaviours and health status were adjusted.

Results

Parents with multiple children had poorer baseline cognitive functions (episodic memory: B = −.17, p < .001; mental status: B = −.25, p < .001) and experienced a faster cognitive decline during the follow-up period (episodic memory: B = −.05, p < .001; mental status: B = −.03, p = .005) compared to those with only one child. Gender-stratified analyses indicated that women were more susceptible to cognitive decline than men as the number of children increased.

Conclusions

This study found a negative correlation between the number of children and cognitive performance among older Chinese parents, with the association being stronger in women. These findings enhance the understanding of the impact of offspring on parental well-being in non-Western societies.

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独生子女还是多子女？中国老年父母子女数量与认知

目的探讨中国老年父母子女数量与认知功能轨迹的关系。方法在中国健康与退休纵向研究（CHARLS）中，对6723名50岁及以上的老年人（55%为男性）进行了为期7年的随访。通过情景记忆和精神状态测试评估认知功能。孩子的数量被分为“独生子女”和“多子女”。采用线性混合模型，以基线儿童数量作为预测因子。协变量包括社会人口因素、健康行为和健康状况。结果有多个孩子的父母的基线认知功能（情景记忆：B =−）较差。17, p < .001；精神状态：B =−。25, p < .001)，并且在随访期间经历了更快的认知衰退（情景记忆：B =−）。05, p < .001；精神状态：B =−。03, p = .005)。性别分层分析表明，随着孩子数量的增加，女性比男性更容易受到认知能力下降的影响。本研究发现，中国高龄父母的子女数量与认知能力之间存在负相关关系，且这种关系在女性中更为明显。这些发现增强了对非西方社会中子女对父母幸福的影响的理解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Australasian Journal on Ageing 医学-老年医学

CiteScore

3.10

自引率

6.20%

发文量

114

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Australasian Journal on Ageing is a peer reviewed journal, which publishes original work in any area of gerontology and geriatric medicine. It welcomes international submissions, particularly from authors in the Asia Pacific region.