Parents, take courage. If you survive the sleep deprivation, toddler tantrums and teenage angst, you may be rewarded with a longer life than your childless peers, researchers said Tuesday.Save civilization and society, discover the true meaning of love, and live longer. Not a bad deal in exchange for trading in your sports car for a minivan.
Fathers gained more in life expectancy than mothers, a team wrote in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health -- and particularly in older age.
"By the age of 60, the difference in life expectancy... may be as much as two years" between people with, and those without, children, they concluded.
Researchers tracked the lifespan of men and women born between 1911 and 1925 and living in Sweden -- more than 1.4 million people in total.
They also gathered data on whether the participants were married and had children.
Men and women with at least one child had "lower death risks" than childless ones, the team concluded.
"At 60 years of age, the difference in life expectancy was two years for men and 1.5 years for women" compared to peers with no kids, the researchers wrote.
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