Associations Between Breastfeeding and Post-perinatal Infant Deaths in the U.S

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Ware, Julie L. ; Li, Ruowei ; Chen, Aimin ; Nelson, Jennifer M. ; Kmet, Jennifer M. ; Parks, Sharyn E. ; Morrow, Ardythe L. ; Chen, Jian ; Perrine, Cria G.
• Description:
  Introduction:
  
  Initiation of breastfeeding has been associated with reduced post-perinatal infant mortality. Although most states have initiatives to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding, no analysis of the association between breastfeeding and infant mortality has been conducted at the state and regional levels. To understand the associations between breastfeeding and post-perinatal infant mortality, the initiation of breastfeeding with post-perinatal infant mortality was analyzed by geographic region and individual states within each region.
  
  Methods:
  
  This study was a prospective cohort analysis linking U.S. national birth and post-perinatal infant death data for nearly 10 million infants born in 2016–2018, who were then followed for 1 year after birth and analyzed in 2021–2022.
  
  Results:
  
  A total of 9,711,567 live births and 20,632 post-perinatal infant deaths from 48 states and the District of Columbia were included in the analysis. The overall AOR and 95% CIs for breastfeeding initiation with post-perinatal infant mortality was 0.67 (0.65, 0.69, p<0.0001) for days 7–364. All 7 U.S. geographic regions had significant reductions in post-perinatal infant deaths associated with breastfeeding initiation; Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions had the largest reductions with AOR of 0.56 (95% CI=0.51, 0.61, p<0.001 and 0.50, 0.63, p<0.001, respectively), whereas the Southeast had the smallest reduction with AOR of 0.79 (95% CI=0.75, 0.84, p<0.001). Statistically significant results were noted for 35 individual states for reduction in total post-perinatal infant deaths.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Although regional and state variation in the magnitude of the association between breastfeeding and infant mortality exists, the consistency of reduced risk, together with existing literature, suggests that breastfeeding promotion and support may be a strategy to reduce infant mortality in the U.S.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Breast Feeding Child Cohort Studies Female Humans Infant Infant Death Infant Mortality Pregnancy Prospective Studies
• Source:
  Am J Prev Med. 65(5):763-774
• Pubmed ID:
  37220859
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10897060
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  65
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ad240a38ada860ab9af2459f2fe5397d9c6b7660a0957c99400795c248e61ea9d242a919c4c0c1b2741db3a8fcc0347a5f04be831beef306d29bd36b651dfb28
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/150352/cdc_150352_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1002.88 KB ]