%0 Journal Article
%T The relationship between a less gender-stereotypical parenthood and alcohol-related care and death: a registry study of Swedish mothers and fathers
%J BMC public health
%D 2008
%A Mansdotter, A.
%A Backhans, Mona
%A Hallqvist, Johan
%V 8
%N 1
%P 312-312
%X BACKGROUND: In general men tend to drink more alcohol and experience more alcohol-related sickness, injuries and mortality than women. In this paper, the overall hypothesis was that increased gender similarity in the division of parental duties would lead to convergence in alcohol-related harm. The aim was to analyse whether the risk of alcohol harm differs between parents who fit a gender-stereotypical versus those with a less gender-stereotypical division of childcare and paid work. METHODS: The study sample was a retrospective registry-based cohort study of all Swedish couples who had their first child together in 1978 (N=49,120). A less gender-stereotypical parenthood was indicated by paternity leave for fathers (1978-1979) and full-time work for mothers (1980). The outcome was inpatient care and/or death caused by alcohol psychosis, alcoholism, liver disease, or alcohol intoxication in the two decades following (1981-2001). Our main statistical method was multivariate logistic regression with odds ratios used to estimate relative risks. RESULTS: The main results show that fathers who took paternity leave had 18% lower risk of alcohol-related care and/or death than other fathers. Mothers who worked full-time about two years after having a child had 71% higher risk than mothers who were unemployed or worked part-time. CONCLUSIONS: A less gender-stereotypical division of duties between parents in early parenthood may contribute to a long-term decreased gender disparity regarding risky alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. In order to know more about the causal direction however, future research has to consider subjects' drinking patterns in the years prior to parenthood.   <p></p>  <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC
%@ 1471-2458
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-312