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Title: Effect of Breast Feeding on Intelligence in Children: Prospective Study, Sibling Pairs Analysis, and Meta-Analysis
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Der, Geoff Batty, G. David Deary, Ian J. |
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Effect of Breast Feeding on Intelligence in Children: Prospective Study, Sibling Pairs Analysis, and Meta-Analysis British Medical Journal 333,7575 (4 November 2006): 945-948. Also: http://www.bmj.com/content/333/7575/945.full Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group, Ltd. - British Medical Journal Publishing Group Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Breastfeeding; Cognitive Ability; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); I.Q.; Pairs (also see Siblings); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Siblings Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Objective: To assess the importance of maternal intelligence, and the effect of controlling for it and other important confounders, in the link between breast feeding and children's intelligence. Design: Examination of the effect of breast feeding on cognitive ability and the impact of a range of potential confounders, in particular maternal IQ, within a national database. Additional analyses compared pairs of siblings from the sample who were and were not breast fed. The results are considered in the context of other studies that have also controlled for parental intelligence via meta-analysis. Setting: 1979 US national longitudinal survey of youth. Subjects: Data on 5475 children, the offspring of 3161 mothers in the longitudinal survey. Main outcome measure: IQ in children measured by Peabody individual achievement test. Results: The mother's IQ was more highly predictive of breastfeeding status than were her race, education, age, poverty status, smoking, the home environment, or the child's birth weight or birth order. One standard deviation advantage in maternal IQ more than doubled the odds of breast feeding. Before adjustment, breast feeding was associated with an increase of around 4 points in mental ability. Adjustment for maternal intelligence accounted for most of this effect. When fully adjusted for a range of relevant confounders, the effect was small (0.52) and non-significant (95% confidence interval -0.19 to 1.23). The results of the sibling comparisons and meta-analysis corroborated these findings. Conclusions: Breast feeding has little or no effect on intelligence in children. While breast feeding has many advantages for the child and mother, enhancement of the child's intelligence is unlikely to be among them. Policy summary: Breast feeding does not increase children's intelligence Despite its many advantag es, breast feeding has little effect on children's intelligence. In a cohort study of 3161 mothers and 5475 children, Der and colleagues (p. 945) found that breast feeding was associated with higher IQ in children, but that this effect was almost entirely accounted for by maternal IQ. More intelligent mothers were more likely to breast feed, and maternal IQ was more predictive of feeding choice than mothers' age, education, home environment, and antenatal smoking status, or children's birth weight and birth order. |
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Bibliography Citation
Der, Geoff, G. David Batty and Ian J. Deary. "Effect of Breast Feeding on Intelligence in Children: Prospective Study, Sibling Pairs Analysis, and Meta-Analysis." British Medical Journal 333,7575 (4 November 2006): 945-948.
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