Those who give birth at age 25 or older more likely to live to 90, study suggests

Thursday, November 17, 2016

THURSDAY, Nov. 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- In what's believed to be the first study of its kind,
research suggests that women who give birth for the first time at age 25 or older are more likely to
live to 90. The researchers also found that women who survived to 90 were more likely to be college
graduates, married and have a higher income. "Our study results don't suggest women should delay
childbearing, because it's not clearly known why the results suggest [the link to] longevity," said study
author Aladdin Shadyab. He's a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego School
of Medicine. "Also, a likely explanation is that women who have a child at an older age are usually of
higher social and economic status," Shadyab added. "We know from [prior] research that these people
are also likely to live longer."

While the average American woman giving birth for the first time today is just over 26 years old --
hardly considered "older" by many societal benchmarks -- the age at first childbirth has continued to
rise in the United States. Rates of first births to women aged 40 and 44, for example, more than
doubled between 1990 and 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Research published in 2015 found that women who gave birth to their last child after age 33 were
twice as likely to live to at least age 95 as women doing so by age 29. But scientists had not
previously evaluated longevity based on age at first childbirth, Shadyab said. For the new study, the
investigators examined data on about 20,000 women gathered as part of a long-term national study
that began in 1993. The women were tracked for up to 21 years, and 54 percent survived to 90 years
old.

Women giving birth for the first time at age 25 or older were 21 percent more likely to live to age 90
than those giving birth at earlier ages, the study found. White women with between two and four full-
term pregnancies also had higher odds of longevity compared to those with one full-term pregnancy,
the findings showed. "Reproductive factors rarely receive attention in relation to longevity," Shadyab
said, noting that he isn't aware of similar data studying fathers. "Usually research is focused on
physical activity, diet and [other factors] related to longevity, but [not] reproductive factors," he
added.

A U.S. longevity expert said he wasn't surprised by the research findings. Steven Austad is scientific
director of the American Federation for Aging Research. He said that, when the study began, the
average age of the women was about 75 years -- an age when one-third of their peers would already
have died. "Of the two-thirds left that were studied, more than half lived to 90. If you're not in the
longevity business, that sounds like it should be a lot -- but if you live to 75, you have a good chance
of living to 90," said Austad. He's also chair of biology at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The study also reported that "if you're well-educated and well-off and not obese and you don't smoke,
you're likely to live a long life," he added. "Which is true, but not very new." Austad noted that age
25 isn't "particularly late" for giving birth for the first time and agreed with the study authors that
women shouldn't plan childbirth timing in hopes of living longer.

The study was published online Nov. 17 in the American Journal of Public Health.

SOURCES: Aladdin H. Shadyab, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, rheumatology and aging, division of epidemiology, family medicine and
public health, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, Calif.; Steven Austad, Ph.D., scientific director, American
Federation for Aging Research, and chair, biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Nov. 17, 2016, American Journal of Public
Health, online HealthDay

I. Answer the questions well

1. What is the above reading text about?
2. “the age at first childbirth has continued to rise in the United States” which is at the 11th line of the
text, what does that mean?
3. What are the factors that determine the longevity of American mother’s age according to the study?
5. What title for the reading text above that will you suggest?

II. True-False. When you find that the statement is not true, then, you need to rewrite it into a correct
one according to the text
1, There have been many studies about the longevity which is connected with reproduction.
2. It is not suggested that women delay the childbearing, since the determining factors of living longer
is not only giving birth at certain ages.
3.The previous objects of longevity study didn’t concern with reproductivity
4.The only reason why women can live longer up to 90s is because of delayed childbearing.
5. The decade after 1990s American women tended to have babies in their late of 50

III. Choose the correct answer for the exercise below using present (ING) or past (ED) participle
When children want to go out, dark, which is usually ( 1scare) thing for children, make them can’t go
out. However, their father, who are ( 2tire) after the (3tire) day will not be able to accompany them. .
Father needs to be (4relax) in (5relax) atmosphere.

IV, Rewrite the sentences replacing the italic part with present participle
1. She was talking to her friend and forgot everything around her
2. Since we watch the news everyday we know what’s going on in the world
3. they are vegetarians and do not eat meat
4. the dog wagged its tail and bit the postman
5. While she was tidying up her room she found some old photos
6. He was a good boy and helped his mother in the kitchen
7. She walked home and met an old friend
8. The man was sitting in the cafe. He was reading a paper
9. Since I didn’t feel well, I didn’t go to the cinema
10. She As they didn’t have enough money they spent their holdays at home lat year