Women’s fertility and allostatic load in the post-reproductive years: an analysis of the Indonesian Family Life Survey

Leone, Tiziana ORCID: 0000-0001-9671-5382, Väisänen, Heini and Witoelar, Firman (2022) Women’s fertility and allostatic load in the post-reproductive years: an analysis of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. Population Studies. ISSN 1477-4747

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Abstract

We know little about the effects of the reproductive health burden in contexts where unsafe abortions, miscarriages, stillbirths, and low-quality maternal care are common. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of allostatic load to understand the impact of reproductive histories on later-life health. We applied path models to the Indonesian Family Life Survey with a sample of 2,001 women aged 40+. Although number of children was not associated with allostatic load, pregnancies not ending in live birth and parenthood before age 18 were both negatively associated with health. We also identified clear cohort and educational effects and a possible rural advantage. Our contribution is twofold: we highlight the importance of reproductive histories beyond live births on women’s later-life health in a context of increasing population ageing, and we demonstrate the applicability of using allostatic load to measure health outside the Global North.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rpst20
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Authors
Divisions:	International Development
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2022 09:00
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 03:16
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/116609

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