Abstract
BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding in infancy is associated with a lower risk of mortality among children, but the impact on mortality in middle and late adulthood remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between breastfeeding in infancy and mortality in middle and late adulthood. METHODS: We included 383,627 participants aged 40-73 from the UK Biobank (2006-2010) and followed up until 2021. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality according to breastfeeding in infancy were estimated with Cox proportional hazards regression models. We further did a meta-analysis, including results from our present study and three other cohort studies (PROSPERO; number CRD42022348925). RESULTS: During a total of 4732,751 person-years of follow-up, 25,581 deaths were identified. Breastfeeding in infancy was associated with lower risks of mortality in middle and late adulthood, with adjusted HRs (95% CIs) of 0.95 (0.93-0.98) for all-cause mortality; 0.91 (0.87-0.96) for cardiovascular mortality and 0.94 (0.874-0.999) for respiratory mortality. Specifically, the association with mortality seemed to attenuate with age - stronger in middle-aged adults than in older adults. A similar association between breastfeeding in infancy and all-cause mortality was found in the meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: Breastfeeding in infancy is associated with a lower risk of mortality - even decades later - in middle and late adulthood.
10 Authors
- Xiaoyan Wang
- Mengsha Yan
- Yanyu Zhang
- Wenjie Wang
- Weiwei Zhang
- Junkai Luo
- Da Gan
- Haomin Yang
- Shankuan Zhu
- Wei He
1 Application
Application ID | Title |
69972 | Risk and prognosis of estrogen-related diseases |