Background and objectives: To examine the effect of maternal breastfeeding on the subsequent risk of diabetes in parous Korean women aged >50 years.
Materials and methods: A total of 14,433 participants from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were included. The subjects were divided into three groups: normal, impaired fasting glucose, and diabetes. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes were assessed using multivariate logistic regression.
Results: A total of 2301 (15.94%) women were classified as having diabetes, and 3670 (25.43%) women were classified as having impaired fasting glucose. Breastfeeding was associated with an OR for diabetes of 0.76 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61, 0.95) compared with non-breastfeeding after adjustment for possible confounders in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Breastfeeding for 13-24 months was associated with an OR of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.5, 0.91), and breastfeeding for 25-36 months was associated with an OR of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.52, 0.87) for diabetes compared with breastfeeding for <1 month in the multivariable logistic regression analysis.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that long-term breastfeeding, particularly breastfeeding for 13-36 months, may be associated with a lower risk for diabetes later in life.
Keywords: breastfeeding; diabetes; impaired fasting glucose; perimenopause; postmenopause.