Parity and parents' health in later life: The gendered case of Ismailia, Egypt

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between reproduction and functional health in later life among women and men in the resource-poor and gender-stratified setting of Ismailia governorate, Egypt. Analyses of survey data collected in 2003 show a statistically significant positive association between parity and difficulty with activities of daily living (ADLs), controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors and other co-morbid conditions. We also find that the number of daughters (but not sons) is associated with worse physical functioning, and this association is more pronounced for older fathers than for older mothers. Our results indicate that both biological and social pathways link fertility and later-life health in this context, and that prescribed familial roles may underlie the differential impact of sons and daughters on the health of mothers and fathers in later life.

Keywords:

• parity
• childbearing
• gender
• functional status
• activities of daily living (ADLs)
• disability

Notes

1. Michal Engelman, Emily M. Agree, and David Bishai are at the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Kathryn M. Yount is at the Hubert Department of Global Health and Department of Sociology, Emory University.

2. This research was supported by grants from the Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, the Hopkins Population Center, the Gender Economic Research and Policy Analysis (GERPA) Initiative of the World Bank, and the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR). We thank Joshua Garoon and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the paper.