Number of children and change in markers of metabolic health over 9-years in men and women. Data from the DESIR study

Parity and incident type 2 diabetes in older Chinese women: Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

This study examined the association between parity and incident type 2 diabetes in older Chinese women and estimated the mediation effect of adiposity indicators. A total of 11,473 women without diabetes at baseline from 2003 to 2008 were followed up until 2012. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to assess the association between parity and incident type 2 diabetes, and mediation analysis to estimate the mediation effect of adiposity indicators. Compared to women with one parity, the hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval (CI)) for incident type 2 diabetes was 0.85 (0.44-1.63), 1.20 (1.11-1.30), 1.28 (1.16-1.41) and 1.27 (1.14-1.42) for women with parity of 0, 2, 3, and ≥ 4, respectively. The proportion of indirect effect (95% CI) mediated by body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio and body fat percentage was 26.5% (19.2-52.2%), 54.5% (39.4-108.7%), 25.1% (18.2-49.1%), 35.9% (25.6-74.1%), 50.3% (36.5-98.6%) and 15.1% (- 66.4 to 112.3%), respectively. Compared to women with one parity, women with multiparity (≥ 2) had a higher risk of incident type 2 diabetes and up to half of the association was mediated by abdominal obesity.

Higher parity and risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean postmenopausal women: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010-2012

AIM

We sought to examine whether parity is associated with higher incidence of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study on 4098 Korean postmenopausal women by using nationally representative data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010-2012. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to evaluate the relationship between parity and metabolic syndrome, with adjustment for potential confounding variables.

RESULTS

The rate of metabolic syndrome was significantly higher with increasing number of parity, with dose-response relationship in univariate analysis (P <0.001). In addition, higher parity (≥3 live births) was associated with more prevalence of all components of metabolic syndrome compared with two live births (parity 2 vs 3 vs ≥4: 5.5 vs 12.1 and 14.4%, respectively; P < 0.001). However, after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle and reproductive factors, we found that only higher parity was significantly associated with metabolic syndrome compared with two live births, and failed to show a dose-dependent relationship (parity 2 vs 3 vs ≥4: odds ratio 1 vs 1.404 vs 1.379, respectively; P = 0.043). We also proved that among the components of metabolic syndrome, only waist circumference had a significant positive relationship with parity in a multivariable adjusted model (parity 2 vs 3 vs ≥4: odds ratio 1 vs 1.559 vs 1.656, respectively; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Higher parity was independently associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women.