posted on 2017-06-05, 15:33authored byJingying Wang, Alban Ramette, Maja Jurca, Myrofora Goutaki, Caroline S. Beardsmore, Claudia E. Kuehni
Breastfeeding protects against respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in infants [1–3], but whether its effects
persist beyond that age is not well understood. Some studies have reported that protection diminishes soon
after weaning [2], while others have found that it extends until the age of 2 years [4] or more [5, 6]. It is
noteworthy that many previous studies grouped RTIs broadly into upper or lower tract infections, rather
than studying specific diseases [3, 7], and few adjusted adequately for confounding factors [5] or
investigated a possible effect modification by sex, which had been suggested by several studies showing a
stronger protection in girls [8, 9].
This study aimed to quantify the protective effect of breastfeeding against RTIs during the first 2 years of
life, while adjusting for potential confounding factors and testing whether the effect varied by sex.
We analysed data from the Leicester Respiratory Cohorts, a population-based random sample of children
from Leicestershire, UK, which has been described in detail elsewhere [10]. For this analysis we included
only children born between 1996 and 1997 who were aged 1–1.99 years at the date of the first survey in
1998. Parents completed a standardised questionnaire that requested detailed information on breastfeeding
and respiratory symptoms. We assessed the duration of breastfeeding (no breastfeeding, ⩽6 months or
>6 months), the prevalence of frequent colds (>6 episodes), ear infections and croup within the last
12 months, and any episodes of bronchiolitis or pneumonia. We extracted perinatal data and demographic
information from maternity records. The Leicestershire Health Authority Research Ethics Committee
approved the study.
The survey requested information on a number of RTIs for each child, so we first performed an omnibus
logistic regression to determine whether breastfeeding was associated with the occurrence of any RTI. By
reforming the data into long format, this omnibus logistic regression also adjusted for the clustering of
observations within each child [11]. Following a significant omnibus test, we performed unadjusted and
adjusted logistic regressions to determine which RTIs were affected by breastfeeding practice. Adjusted
models controlled for sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (Townsend deprivation score [12]), perinatal
factors (gestational age, birthweight, birth season), environmental factors ( pre- and post-natal maternal
smoking, number of older siblings, day care attendance) and parental history of asthma, hay fever and
bronchitis. We tested for effect modification by sex by adding interaction terms into adjusted models.
Finally, we performed a sensitivity analysis including a subgroup of children with information on exact
breastfeeding duration, by using breastfeeding as a continuous exposure, rather than categorical. All
analyses were performed in Stata (version 14.2, Stata Corporation, Austin, TX, USA).
The survey in 1998 was sent to 5400 families with children aged between 1 and 1.99 years. Questionnaires
were returned by 4100 parents (response rate of 76%). After excluding 47 children who had no
breastfeeding information and 13 children born extremely prematurely (gestational age of <28 weeks [13]),
4040 children remained in the analysis. Of these, 52% were boys, 81% were white and 19% were of South
Asian ethnic origin, 1659 (41%) had never been breastfed, 1639 (41%) had been breastfed for ⩽6 months
and 742 (18%) for >6 months. Of the 4040 included children, 769 (19%) were reported by their parents to
have had frequent colds, 1685 (42%) ear infections and 293 (7%) croup within the last 12 months. Any
episodes of bronchiolitis were reported for 453 children (11%) and pneumonia for 53 (1%)
History
Citation
European Respiratory Journal Open Research, 2017, 3: 00143-2016
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY/School of Medicine/Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation