Women who have kids later live longer, study says

Women who give birth for the first tine at age 25 or older are more likely to live to 90, a new study found.

The study is believed to be the first of its kind, according to a summary of the study published by MedlinePlus Health, a project of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Overall, women are increasingly giving birth later in life. The study found women who gave birth for the first time at age 25 or older were 21 percent more likely to live to age 90 than women who gave birth earlier. And women who gave birth two to four times had higher odds of longevity than women who gave birth once.

But one of the study authors said women shouldn’t delay childbearing, because it’s not clear why the correlation exists.

One explanation: women who have children at older ages generally have higher social and economic statuses. The study found that women who lived to 90 were more likely to be college graduates, married and have a higher income.

The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health and included data about 20,000 women as part of a long-term national study that began in 1993 and tracked participants for up to 21 years.

This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 7:41 AM with the headline "Women who have kids later live longer, study says."