BMJ  2006;333:945 (4 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.38978.699583.55 (published 4 October 2006)

Research

Effect of breast feeding on intelligence in children: prospective study, sibling pairs analysis, and meta-analysis

Geoff Der, statistician1, G David Batty, Wellcome fellow1, Ian J Deary, professor of differential psychology2

1 MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow G12 8RZ, 2 Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Correspondence to: G Der Geoff{at}msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

Abstract

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.


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Does 1979 data hold up?
Veronica G. (Ronnie) Falcao
bmj.com, 6 Oct 2006 [Full text]
Defining breastfeeding properly could change conclusions
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Dose of human milk not specified
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mathematical manipulation
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Distribution of sample by length of feeding
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