An extensive literature has examined the relationship between birth spacing and subsequent health outcomes for parents, particularly for mothers. However, this research has drawn almost exclusively on observational research designs, and almost all studies have been limited to adjusting for observable factors that could confound the relationship between birth spacing and health outcomes. In this study, we use Norwegian register data to examine the relationship between birth spacing and the number of general practitioner consultations for mothers’ and fathers’ physical and mental health concerns immediately after childbirth (1–5 and 6–11 months after childbirth), in the medium term (5–6 years after childbearing), and in the long term (10–11 years after childbearing). To examine short-term health outcomes, we estimate individual fixed-effects models: we hold constant factors that could influence parents’ birth spacing behavior and their health, comparing health outcomes after different births to the same parent. We apply sibling fixed effects in our analysis of medium- and long-term outcomes, holding constant mothers’ and fathers’ family backgrounds. The results from our analyses that do not apply individual or sibling fixed effects are consistent with much of the previous literature: shorter and longer birth intervals are associated with worse health outcomes than birth intervals of approximately 2–3 years. Estimates from individual fixed-effects models suggest that particularly short intervals have a modest negative effect on maternal mental health in the short term, with more ambiguous evidence that particularly short or long intervals might modestly influence short-, medium-, and long-term physical health outcomes. Overall, these results are consistent with small to negligible effects of birth spacing behavior on (non-pregnancy-related) parental health outcomes.

中文翻译：

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出生间隔和父母的身心健康：使用个人和兄弟姐妹固定效应的分析

大量文献研究了父母（尤其是母亲）的生育间隔与随后的健康结果之间的关系。然而，这项研究几乎完全采用观察性研究设计，几乎所有研究都仅限于调整可能混淆出生间隔和健康结果之间关系的可观察因素。在这项研究中，我们使用挪威登记数据来研究生育间隔与产后立即（产后1-5个月和6-11个月）母亲和父亲的身心健康问题就诊全科医生的次数之间的关系。中期（生育后5-6年）和长期（生育后10-11年）。为了检查短期健康结果，我们估计了个体固定效应模型：我们持有可能影响父母的生育间隔行为及其健康的恒定因素，比较同一父母不同生育后的健康结果。我们在中长期结果分析中应用兄弟姐妹固定效应，保持母亲和父亲的家庭背景不变。我们的分析结果不应用个人或兄弟姐妹的固定效应，与之前的大部分文献一致：与大约 2-3 年的生育间隔相比，较短和较长的生育间隔与更差的健康结果相关。个体固定效应模型的估计表明，特别短的间隔在短期内对母亲的心理健康有适度的负面影响，更模糊的证据表明，特别短或长的间隔可能会适度影响短期、中期和长期的身体健康。健康状况。总体而言，这些结果与生育间隔行为对（非怀孕相关）父母健康结果的影响很小甚至可以忽略不计是一致的。