Cumulative Reproductive Life Histories and Grip Strength in Indonesia: 1993-2014

Tiziana Leone , LSE
Heini E. Vaisanen, University of Southampton
Firman Witoelar, Australian National University

Reproductive histories put a burden on women’s health. This is possibly even more so in high fertility and low resource settings where maternal mortality and morbidity is higher. So far, the evidence on the cumulative impact of fertility on general health later in life is unclear. There is a lack of studies in low resource countries that take into account adverse reproductive vents such as pregnancies not ending in live births and generally in settings with low levels of maternal health care. With a fast ageing population, we need to understand how decades of high fertility and high maternal morbidity and mortality in a low-income setting might have affected women’s health. Using latent class models to analyse the first five waves of the Indonesian Family life Survey (IFLS) the aim of this study is to analyse the impact of cumulative reproductive histories on ageing, as indicated by grip strength later in life. Preliminary results show a negative impact of early age at first birth and generally no effect of parity and terminations. This study is set within the greater need to understand how high fertility might affect the ageing process of women in a low-income setting.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe