London : Men who become fathers before the age of 25 may be at a greater risk of dying in middle age than those who delay having children, a new Finnish study has warned, reports PTI.
Researchers said that men who father a child in early life have poorer health and die earlier than men who delay fatherhood, but family environment, early socioeconomic circumstances and genes are thought to explain this association.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland used a 10 per cent nationally representative sample of households drawn from the 1950 Finnish Census. This involved more than 30,500 men born between 1940 and 1950, who became fathers by the age of 45. The dads were tracked from the age of 45 until death or age 54, using mortality data for 1985-2005.
Some 15 per cent of this sample had fathered their first child by the age of 22; 29 per cent at ages 22-24; 18 per cent when they were 25-26; 19 per cent between the ages of 27 and 29; and 19 per cent between the ages of 30 and 44.
The average age at which a man became a dad was 25-26, and men in this age bracket were used as a reference. The study took account of factors, such as educational attainment and region of residence, which are linked to timing of first parenthood; and marital status and number of children, both of which are linked to long term health.
During the 10 year monitoring period around 1 in 20 of the dads died. The primary causes of death were ischaemic heart disease (21 per cent) and diseases related to excess alcohol (16 per cent).
