The Biopsychosocial Outcomes of Childlessness or Having One Child on Couple’s Health: A Systematic Review

Background: The increase in childlessness or having one child is one of the significant changes in the demographic structure, especially in developed countries. Literature review shows that having no child or only one child affects the individual’s health from various perspectives.   Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the biopsychosocial outcomes of childlessness or having one child on couples’ health. Methods: In this systematic review, the research question was about the biopsychosocial outcomes of childlessness or having a single child on couples’ health. A systematic literature search was done in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and the Iranian database, including SID. We employed the following keywords: “Single child,” “childlessness,” “health outcome,” and “panel study.” The quality assessment of the included studies was carried out using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) for cohort studies.  Results: Nine studies were included in this study. The results were analyzed based on the biopsychosocial perspective. From a biological perspective, women with no child or one child and those who had cesarean section showed poorer physical health scores than women with two children and vaginal delivery. Also, other studies showed the impact of childlessness on the higher probability of cardiovascular disease and mortality, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes in men. From a psychological perspective, the studies included in this field had controversial results. Most of the included studies showed that childless women or women with one child had lower scores in mental health compared to women with two children. In addition, women with a cesarean section also had poorer mental health compared to those with vaginal delivery. Also, childlessness in old adults can cause psychological effects such as less life satisfaction, feelings of more anxiety, and loneliness. From a social perspective, one study showed that childless men are different from fathers with children in terms of participation in society, income level, and life satisfaction. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that childless couples may have various health problems in biological, psychological, and social aspects, which, in general, negatively affect their quality of life. The results of this study can be a good resource for policymakers and health specialists to design and implement cost-effective interventions to improve fertility indicators among the Iranian population.

کلیدواژه ها:

Single child ، Childlessness ، Health outcome ، Panel study