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Breast-Feeding: Early Influences on Later Health pp 237–251Cite as

The Long-term Effects of Breast-feeding on Asthma and Atopic Disease

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Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 639))

In this review, the primary objective is to assess the evidence of whether breastfeeding protects against asthma and atopic disease for the long-term (long-term is defined here as >5 years of age). Two main types of observational epidemiological studies have been used to test this hypothesis. These are cohort studies of random samples of children and cohort studies of children with a family history of asthma or atopy. In each study type, exposure and outcome data are collected either prospectively or retrospectively. The 12 criteria for assessing the adequate measurement of exposure, outcome and statistics of cohort studies in this context are given in Table 17-1.1

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth, WA, 6872, Australia

    W. H. Oddy

  2. Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science, Curtin University of Technology, WA, 6845, Australia

    W. H. Oddy

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  1. W. H. Oddy
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK

    Gail Goldberg  & Ann Prentice  & 

  2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

    Andrew Prentice  & Suzanne Filteau  & 

  3. Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Montpellier, France

    Kirsten Simondon

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Oddy, W.H. (2009). The Long-term Effects of Breast-feeding on Asthma and Atopic Disease. In: Goldberg, G., Prentice, A., Prentice, A., Filteau, S., Simondon, K. (eds) Breast-Feeding: Early Influences on Later Health. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 639. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8749-3_17

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