Original articleIs Being Childless Detrimental to a Woman's Health and Well-Being Across Her Life Course?
Section snippets
Methods
This study used data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study (HILDA). HILDA is a household-based panel study that collects information about economic and subjective well-being, labor market, and family dynamics (Summerfield et al., 2011). HILDA is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services, formally known as the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and is conducted by the Melbourne
Results
Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of the women at Wave 1. More than one-half of the women (54.71%) were aged between 25 and 44 years, 55% were in a relationship and living with their partner, 42.26% had completed education at year 11 or below, and 59.71% were employed.
At Wave 1, 68.10% of the women (n = 4,139) were mothers and 31.90% (n = 1,939) were childless. Table 2 presents the association between the demographic characteristics of the women by motherhood status at Wave 1.
Discussion
This study found women that experience both better and worse health and well-being at different stages in their life, and that this differed between women with and without children. Notably, the current study found the peak reproductive years were a time of poorer health and well-being for childless women. For example, childless women aged between 34 and 44 years experienced poorer physical component summary measure scores, more bodily pain, worse general health, and poorer physical and social
Acknowledgments
This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. The author acknowledges
Melissa Graham, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Health through Action on Social Exclusion (CHASE), School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University. Her research focuses on women's sexual and reproductive health, particularly women who do not mother.
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2022, Best Practice and Research: Clinical Obstetrics and GynaecologyCitation Excerpt :As infertility and childlessness are lifelong conditions, it is difficult to extrapolate HRQoL estimates obtained during the treatment period over the lifetime of the couple for establishing differential QALY benefits. This approach fails to take into consideration that the perception of infertility and involuntary childlessness changes over time as people adapts, and over time there can often be limited differences in HRQoL between those with children and involuntarily childless couples [41–43]. Due to the limitations of many patient-reported outcome instruments, past reviews suggest that available HRQoL studies in infertile couples are not suitable for capturing utilities for use in CEAs [21].
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Melissa Graham, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Health through Action on Social Exclusion (CHASE), School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University. Her research focuses on women's sexual and reproductive health, particularly women who do not mother.