SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Parents of large families may have a modest risk of early death, say U.S. and Austrian researchers who studied Utah couples married in the 1800s.
The researchers said parents with at least 12 children might live a year or two less than those with smaller families, NewScientist.com said. Ken Smith at the University of Utah and Dustin Penn of the Austrian Academy of Sciences analyzed data on Utah couples married between 1860 and 1895.
More than 5 percent of women died within a year of giving birth beyond 11 children, researchers said. About 1 percent of women died in the year following the birth of their first, second or third child.
One explanation could be that pregnancy depletes nutrients in a woman's body, reducing her resistance to infection, Smith said.
Fathers with more children also had a shorter lifespan, researchers said. About 3 percent of men died within the year following the birth of a child beyond the 11th while less than 1 percent died in the year following the birth of their first three children.
One observer said the study was important for a historical perspective, but isn't relevant to today because of different conditions.
