A Danish study has found that childless men have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer than fathers. However, the more children a father has, the lower his risk of the disease.

Researchers used a national population-based register to analyze data from all men born in Denmark between 1935 and 1988. Men without children were 16 percent less likely than those with children to be diagnosed with prostate cancer during up to 35 years of follow up. But fathers showed a gradually reduced prostate cancer risk with an increasing number of children.

The analysis did not reveal what factors associated with childlessness might be responsible for the risk reduction.