Infant feeding practices and autism spectrum disorder in US children aged 2–5 years: the national survey of children’s health (NSCH) 2016–2020
Zhan, Xiao-Ling, Pan, Ning, Karatela, Shamshad, Shi, Lei, Wang, Xin, Liu, Zhao-Yan, Jing, Jin, Li, Xiu-Hong, Cai, Li, and Lin, Li-Zi (2023) Infant feeding practices and autism spectrum disorder in US children aged 2–5 years: the national survey of children’s health (NSCH) 2016–2020. International Breastfeeding Journal, 18. 41.
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Abstract
Objective: To investigate the relationship between infant feeding practices and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children aged 2–5 years in the United States (US).
Methods: Data from the 2016–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey, were utilized for this study. Questionnaires were administered to parents of children aged 2–5 years to gather information on ASD diagnosis, infant feeding practices, and demographic factors (e.g., child sex, ethnic group, and maternal age at birth). Logistic regression with sample weights was employed to assess the association between infant feeding practices and ASD, while controlling for demographic variables. Polynomial regression models were used to examine trends in exclusive breastfeeding and ever breastfeeding rates among children with and without ASD.
Results: A total of 35,050 children aged 2–5 years were analyzed, including 616 diagnosed with ASD, after excluding participants with missing information on breastfeeding and ASD diagnosis. Of these children with ASD, 76.6% (n = 472) had a breastfeeding history, with 67.5% (n = 416) engaged in partial breastfeeding and 9.1% (n = 56) exclusively breastfed. Adjusted odds ratios for each additional month of breastfeeding compared to never being breastfed were 0.98 (95% CI, 0.96–1.01). The adjusted odds ratios for breastfeeding durations of > 0–6 months, > 6–12 months, > 12–24 months, and > 24 months were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.50–1.31), 0.65 (95% CI, 0.36–1.18), 0.81 (95% CI, 0.44–1.49), and 0.48 (95% CI, 0.23–1.01), respectively. Compared to children who were never breastfed, the adjusted odds ratio for children who were ever breastfed was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.47–1.18). Among children with ASD, the proportion of ever breastfeeding declined from 82.0% in 2017 to 64.3% in 2020, while exclusive breastfeeding decreased from 12.0% in 2016 to 4.2% in 2020.
Conclusions and relevance: Although no significant association was found between infant feeding practices and ASD among US children aged 2–5 years, the rates of breastfeeding, particularly exclusive breastfeeding, were suboptimal among children with ASD. This highlights the need for specific policies and practices to promote and support breastfeeding among parents of children with ASD or those at high risk of having a child with ASD.
Item ID: | 80300 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 1746-4358 |
Keywords: | Autism spectrum disorder, Cross-sectional studies, Feeding behavior, Risk factors, United States |
Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2023, corrected publication 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
Date Deposited: | 20 Feb 2024 01:10 |
FoR Codes: | 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3213 Paediatrics > 321302 Infant and child health @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200506 Neonatal and child health @ 100% |
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