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 Vol. 14 No. 6, December 2005
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Right arrow Breastfeeding

AAP Grand Rounds 14:67-68 (2005)
© 2005 American Academy of Pediatrics

BREASTFEEDING

Longer Duration of Breastfeeding Decreases the Risk of Overweight

Source: Harder T, Bergmann R, Kallischnigg G, et al. Duration of breastfeeding and risk of overweight: a meta-analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 2005;162:397–403.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Researchers from Berlin, Germany, quantified the association between duration of breastfeeding and risk of childhood overweight in a meta-regression analysis. Using multiple methods, 49 articles initially were identified for the analysis. Only 17 articles met the inclusion criteria of being an original report comparing breastfed children with exclusively formula-fed children, reporting the odds ratio and 95 percent confidence interval (CI) of overweight or obesity (any definition was accepted) associated with breastfeeding, and reporting the duration of breastfeeding for at least 1 exposure group. The investigators also analyzed the data by different subgroups and checked for evidence of publication bias.

More than 100,000 children were subjects in the 17 studies. No publication bias was found. An inverse linear association was identified between duration of breastfeeding and risk of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Wendy Slusser, MD, MS, FAAP
Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA