ArticleBMC neurology2025
Number of children and dementia risk: a causal mediation analysis using data from the HUNT study linked with national registries in Norway.
Article in BMC neurology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Determinants of Dementia Risk Score in Primary Care: Knowledge Level, Social Factors, and Health Behaviours.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Article
- Occupational social interaction is associated with reduced dementia risk: The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT).Psychology and aging · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundChildlessness, as well as having a high number of children, has been reported to be associated with an elevated risk of dementia compared to having 2-3 children. The mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood and may be mediated by different midlife risk factors. We examined the mediating role of various factors on the relationship between the number of children and dementia risk. These factors include socioeconomic factors (e.g., occupational complexity), psychosocial (e.g.., social activities, loneliness, life satisfaction), lifestyle (e.g., smoking, physical inactivity, alcohol intake), and chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, diabetes, depression, hearing impairment and hypertension).
methodsUsing a historic cohort design, we included 9,745 participants born between 1931-48, with a mean age of 78.2 (SD = 6.4) years at the time of cognitive testing in the HUNT4 70 + sub-study (2017-2019). Further measures were obtained through data linkage between information from Statistics Norway and the HUNT1(1984-86), and HUNT2 (1995-97) Surveys. Causal mediation analyses using an inverse odd weighting approach were conducted to decompose the total effect of the number of children (0, 1, or 4 + children vs. 2-3) on the risk of dementia at age 70 + years into direct and indirect effects with mediators assessed at a mean age of 50.7 (SD = 6.4) years. The analyses were adjusted for age, sex, marital status at age 25 years, educational status, and religion assessed during HUNT3 (2006-2008).
resultsOverall, 15.7% were diagnosed with dementia. The proportions with dementia by the number of children were 22.3% among those with no children, 21.4% for those with one child, 13% for those with 2-3 children (specifically, 12.6% for those with 2 children and 13.4% for those with 3 children), and 19.9% for those with 4 + children. Compared to the reference group of individuals with 2-3 children, the dementia risk was higher among the groups with no children (relative risk (RR): 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.12, 1.51)), those with one child (RR: 1.30, 95% CI (1.14, 1.47)) and those with 4 + children (RR: 1.12, 95% CI (1.01, 1.24)). The elevated risks of dementia were not mediated by the socioeconomic, psychosocial, lifestyle, or chronic diseases related factors that we tested. Sex-stratified analysis showed higher dementia risk for men without children and women with one or 4 + children compared to those with 2-3 children, with similar patterns across sexes. None of the mediators contributed to mediation in either group. None of the mediators appeared to contribute through mediation in either group.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that the number of children-specifically being childless, having one child, or having four or more children-may influence the risk of dementia. These relationships were not mediated by psychosocial, lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors, or markers of chronic diseases in adulthood considered in this study.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.