Previous research has shown a link between breastfeeding and
decreased risk of childhood leukemia, however, a new study reveals that
long-term breastfeeding may decrease the risk of leukemia and lymphoma
even more than breastfeeding for just a few months.
The study showed that breastfeeding for less than six months was
associated with an odds ratio of 2.79 for contracting a lymphoid
malignancy compared with children breastfed longer than six months.
Researchers from the United Arab Emirates University compared 117
children with various forms of lymphoma and leukemia who were treated at
the same hospital between 1983 and 1997 to a 117-member control group of
healthy children matched by age and sex. All children in the study were
Bedouin Arabs.
A report on the researchers' findings appears in the January 2001
edition of the European Journal of Cancer. The researchers say that with
this study and others, the protective effect of longer breastfeeding
against childhood leukemia and lymphomas is now more firmly established.
Source: European Journal of Cancer; 37:234-238.
|
Breastfeeding
All
About
