Parents, there is hope – If you pass through sleep deprivation, angry outbursts from babies and teenage angst, you’re rewarded with a longer life than the childless.
-At 60 years of age, the difference in life expectancy can be as much as two years, is the conclusion of researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
The difference is biggest for men, while for women it is at eighteen months, the researchers wrote in a report in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
The study looked at the life of men and women born between 1911 and 1925, more than 1.4 million people in total. They also collected data on whether or not the participants were married and had children.
The researchers point out that this is only a correlation, and the study can not conclude that some are living longer thanks to children.
The researchers, however, have a theory that parents benefit from social and economic support from their children when they are older, a benefit that people without children do not have.
Another theory is that childless people live a more unhealthy life than parents do.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
