title: Influence of late-age births on maternal longevity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between the mother's age at last birth and maternal long-term survival.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from three national censuses (1972, 1983, and 1995) and national birth and death records (1972-2009) were used to examine the association between age at last birth and mortality while accounting for potential confounders, such as parity. Age-adjusted mortality rates and Cox proportional hazard models were used in the analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 887 women who delivered their last child after 45 years of age were identified from among 178,507 women (1,592,379 person-years). Age-adjusted mortality rates from 55 years of age were highest for childless women (9.2 per 1000) and decreased linearly (P < .001) for parous women with increased age at last birth (5.2 per 1000 for women aged ≥45 years at last birth). In models adjusted for age at first birth and parity, mortality risks were lowest among parous women with late-age births (≥45 years) compared with parous women with their last births before 35 years of age (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.40-0.86).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides new empirical evidence that late-age births are associated with maternal longevity, although a direct causal relation cannot be established with the information available.
authors.affiliation: Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: denaj@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Dena
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jaffe
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Liron
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kogan
authors.affiliation: Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Orly
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Manor
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Yuval
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gielchinsky
authors.affiliation: Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dior
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Neri
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Laufer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019352:Censuses; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008136:Longevity; D008423:Maternal Age; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
keywords: Birth; Longevity; Maternal; Mortality; Reproduction