Do mothers or females without children have better health-related quality of life across their reproductive years?

Purpose To compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between mothers and females who were voluntarily or involuntarily childless, across their reproductive years. Methods 4100 females born in 1973–78 from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health were followed for 22 years. Motherhood...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quality of life research 2023-05, Vol.32 (5), p.1481-1491
Main Authors: Jin, Chuyao, Tooth, Leigh R., Xu, Xiaolin, Mishra, Gita D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Australia
Child
Female
Females
Fertility
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Mothers
Public Health
Quality of life
Quality of Life - psychology
Quality of Life Research
Sociology
Women's Health
Young Adult
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Summary:Purpose To compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between mothers and females who were voluntarily or involuntarily childless, across their reproductive years. Methods 4100 females born in 1973–78 from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health were followed for 22 years. Motherhood status was defined by females’ reports in Survey 8 (2018, 40–45 years) on their fertility, attempts to conceive, use of in vitro fertilization and fertility hormones, and number of children. HRQoL was assessed in each survey using the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36). Linear mixed models were used to assess the associations between motherhood status and HRQoL. Results Over 22 years, compared with females who were voluntarily childless, mothers on average had better HRQoL (shown by scores 1.5 to 3.4 points higher on five of the eight SF-36 subscales), while females who were involuntarily childless scored 2.2 to 3.0 points lower on three of eight SF-36 subscales. Compared with females who were voluntarily childless, teen mothers (age at first birth 
ISSN:0962-9343
1573-2649
DOI:10.1007/s11136-022-03338-1