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. 2009 Aug;30(8):1184-91.
doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2007.11.011. Epub 2008 Jan 10.

Number of children is associated with neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease in women

Michal Schnaider Beeri  1 , Michael Rapp, James Schmeidler, Abraham Reichenberg, Dushyant P Purohit, Daniel P Perl, Hillel T Grossman, Isak Prohovnik, Vahram Haroutunian, Jeremy M Silverman
Affiliations

Number of children is associated with neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease in women

Michal Schnaider Beeri et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2009 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between number of born children and neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: The brains of 86 subjects with data on the number of biological children born, were studied postmortem. Primary analyses included 73 subjects (average age at death=80; 42 women) devoid of cerebrovascular disease associated lesions (i.e., infarcts) or of non-AD related neuropathology. Women were significantly older at death than men (85.6 vs. 73.4; p<.0005) but did not differ significantly from men in number of children or dementia severity. Secondary analyses included 13 additional subjects who had concomitant cerebrovascular disease. Density of neuritic plaques (NPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala and multiple regions of the cerebral cortex, as well as composites of these indices reflecting overall neuropathology, were analyzed. For men and women separately, partial correlations, controlling for age at death and dementia severity, were used to assess the associations of number of children with these neuropathological variables.

Results: Among women, all the partial correlations were positive, with statistical significance for overall neuropathology (r=.37; p=.02), overall NPs (r=.36; p=.02), and for NPs in the amygdala (r=.47; p=.002). Among men, none of the partial correlations were statistically significant. Results of the secondary analyses were similar.

Conclusions: Since the associations between number of children and neuropathology of AD were found for women only, they might reflect sex-specific mechanisms (such as variations in estrogen or luteinizing hormone levels) rather than social, economic, biological or other mechanisms common to both men and women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement: The authors reported no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Adjusted means of neuritic plaques (NP) according to number of children by sex
*In women, NP rating in the amygdala increased with the number of children (p=.002 for linear trend controlling for CDR and age at death). In men, NP ratings in the amygdala were not associated with number of children (p=.59).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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