People Who Have Depression Less Likely To Have Children

According to a recent study, published in the prestigious American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers discovered that depression is associated with lower likelihood of having children in both men and women. With outcomes from the unique Finnish register data, this study, which included more than 1.4 million participants, analyzed the link between diagnosed depression and the chances of having children, the number of children, and the age of first child for all men and women born in Finland between the time period of 1960 to 1980. As per study results, men who are suffering from even mild depression are less likely to have children.

Principal investigator Kateryna Golovina from the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, said, “One of the main results was that depression was associated with a lower likelihood of having children and a lower number of children among men and women. Depression was also linked to a slightly lower age at first birth.”

According to the conclusion, men who were diagnosed with depression had 33% less chances of having a child as compared to men without depression. On the other hand, women who were diagnosed with depression had a 15% lower likelihood of having a child than women without depression. Another major observation was that the severity of depression was linked to a likelihood of having children: for men, as even mild depression was leading to lower odds of having children, as for women, the relation was discovered only in severe depression.

Also read: 5 Non-Medical Ways To Overcome Depression

Kateryna Golovina, said, “Among men and women with secondary and higher education, depression was related to a lower likelihood of having children and having fewer children. As for the participants with basic education, no associations were observed for men, whereas for women depression was related to a higher likelihood of having children.” To conduct the study, the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare collaborated together. It was funded by The Helsinki Collegium.