MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_74139" align="alignleft" width="160"] Dr. Parker[/caption] John James (JJ) Parker, MD, MS Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Attending Physician, Division of Advanced General Pediatrics & Primary Care Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Attending Physician, Transitional Care Clinic, Northwestern Medical Group Chicago, Illinois 60611   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Fathers are a critical but overlooked population. We know the health of fathers influences the health of their families and there is growing evidence that fatherhood influences men's health, but studies from the US are lacking. This study used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which is a cohort study that has followed young adults for 35 years, allowing us to measure associations of fatherhood with health during the life course of men. We found multiple associations between fatherhood and men's health, and our outcomes differed by race. Black fathers had lower death rates than Black nonfathers, which we did not detect in White men. For both Black and White men, becoming a father at less than 25 was associated with poor health outcomes. For Black men early entry to fatherhood was associated with higher mortality rates and for White men it was associated with worse cardiovascular health.