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The latest research reveals that people who had children may live two years longer than those who did not experience parenthood. Although the reasons behind the link between parenthood and lifespan are still unclear, results of the study showed the significant relevance of such condition to a life span of a person.

The Medical News Today reported that a new study, conducted at the Karilinska Institute in Sweden, discovered that parenthood and having children may increase your chances of living two years longer compared to a person who is childless. Head researcher of the team Dr. Karin Modig noted that there is little research conducted on the association of parenthood and living longer and how this association changes throughout a lifetime.

The team of researchers used national registry data to accumulate information on 794,481 men and 725,290 women that were born from 1911 and 1925. Each of the subjects was accessed according to marital status, if they became a parent or stayed single, the number of children and gender of their child. Results of the analysis showed that those individuals who entered parenthood had a lower risk of death compared to childless individuals.

At age 60, men with children lived two years longer than childless men while women with children lived 1.5 years longer compared to childless women. The research also revealed the strong link between having children and a longer lifespan that grew with age, The Guardian noted. Additionally, unmarried men who had children lived longer than married men who became parents.

Hypothetically, the absence of a partner may have caused unmarried men to rely more on their offspring in the later part of their lives and may explain the death risk differences between a married man and unmarried man who had children.

The research also suggests that a parent's lifespan increases regardless if their child was a boy or a girl. In earlier research, they have associated having a daughter to increased parental lifespan because of the social benefits associated with having a girl as a child. Overall, the research indicates that greater support from an offspring, most especially during the later stage of a parent's life increases their chances of living longer.