The effect of bearing and rearing a child on blood pressure: a nationally representative instrumental variable analysis of 444 611 mothers in India.

ABSTRACT:

Background

At the individual level, it is well known that pregnancies have a short-term effect on a woman's cardiovascular system and blood pressure. The long-term effect of having children on maternal blood pressure, however, is unknown. We thus estimated the causal effect of having children on blood pressure among mothers in India, a country with a history of high fertility rates.

Methods

We used nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2015-16 India National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4). The study population comprised 444 611 mothers aged 15-49 years. We used the sex of the first-born child as an instrumental variable (IV) for the total number of a woman's children. We estimated the effect of an additional child on systolic and diastolic blood pressure

SUBMITTER: Teufel F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8580275 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature