The relationship between disability and parental status: a register study of the 1968 to 1970 birth cohorts

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 343
• Main Authors: Namatovu, Fredinah, Lundevaller, Erling Häggström, Vikström, Lotta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 12.02.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Child; Children; Children & youth; Cohort Studies; Demographic aspects; Disabilities; Disability; Disability benefits; Disability pension; Disabled Persons; Early retirement; Family; Female; Fertility; Having children; Humans; Hypotheses; Labor force; Labor market; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Marital status; Marriage; Parental status; Parenthood; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Pensions; People with disabilities; Personal relationships; Regression analysis; Sweden - epidemiology; Women; Sweden; Disability; Having children; Parenting; Parenthood; Fertility; Parental status; Disability benefits; Early retirement; Children; Disability pension; Child
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10371-1

Having children is a major life course event yet some disabilities could make it biologically challenging and some others could limit access to necessary socioeconomic resources. To date, there is relatively little data on disability and parental status and our study aimed to investigate this relationship. This longitudinal cohort study was based on register data obtained from all people born in Sweden from 1968 to 1970 (n = 440220). We performed descriptive analyses, graphical plots, logistic regression, and Cox regression analyses. Our findings from both logistic regression and Cox regression indicated that individuals that started to receive disability benefits at an early age had reduced chances of having children during the follow-up duration. Men with disabilities were less likely to have children when compared to women with disabilities and to men and women without disabilities. We found evidence that disability during early adulthood was associated with reduced chances of having children. Findings support policies and programmes aimed at promoting optimal health during early adulthood, as this would promote continued labour force participation, reduce early use of disability benefits, and possibly improve chances of becoming a parent.