Breastfeeding and risk of asthma, hay fever and eczema
Authors: Ek Weronica E. , Karlsson Torgny , Azuaje Hernandez Carlos , Rask-Andersen Mathias , Johansson Åsa 
Published: June 2017

Background

Breastfeeding is commonly proposed to protect against atopic diseases. However, studies aiming to quantify these protective effects have shown conflicting results.

Methods

To entrench the effects of breastfeeding on risk of asthma, hay fever and eczema, our study included a large study cohort, UK Biobank (N=502,682). Information was collected on whether participants had been breastfeed and on the prevalence of disease. Disease was tested for association with breastfeeding, adjusting or matching for influential covariates.

Findings

A total of 443,068 participants were included in our analyses of which 71·2% had been breastfed. The prevalence of asthma was 11·4 % and 12·7% in the breastfed and non-breastfed groups, and hay fever or eczema (23·9% and 24·8 % in the two groups respectively. When correcting or matching for potential confounders, we could not see any association between being breastfed and asthma. However, there were increased odds of hay fever and eczema among participants that had been breastfed (P=7·78×10−6).

Interpretation

This study reports that breastfeeding is associated with increased odds of hay fever and eczema but it show no evidence for breastfeeding being associated with asthma diagnosis.

Funding

The Swedish Society for Medical Research (SSMF), the Kjell and Märta Beijers Foundation, Göran Gustafssons Foundation, the Swedish Medical Research Council (Project Number 2015-03327), the Marcus Borgström Foundation, the Åke Wiberg Foundation and the Vleugels Foundation.

Evidence before this study

Atopic diseases affect quality of life for a large part of the human population and pose a very high socio-economic burden. Genetic, environmental, and a number of lifestyle factors influence our risk of developing atopic disorders and high familial prevalence is one of the strongest known risk factors for disease. Several environmental and lifestyle risk factors have already been well established in the scientific community, such as smoking on the risk of developing asthma. Breastfeeding is commonly argued to be protective against atopic diseases. However, studies aiming to quantify these protective effects have shown conflicting results.

Added value of this study

Our study is, to our knowledge, the largest investigation on how breastfeeding is associated with being diagnosed with asthma, hay fever and eczema at adult age. The study found breastfeeding to be associated with increased odds of being diagnosed with hay fever and eczema during life, while we found no association between breastfeeding and asthma. Our results for hay fever and eczema is in line with the western world hygiene hypothesis, but contradict the general picture of breastfeeding being protective.

Implications of all the available evidence

To be able to give parents correct advice on lifestyles choices that will protect their kids against atopic diseases, we need to clarify the currently conflicting results on the effect of breastfeeding on risk of atopic diseases. However, these results should not be used to recommend breastfeeding or to discourage it since the present study only investigates the association between breastfeeding history and being diagnosed with asthma, hay fever and eczema during lifetime.

Abbreviations

TDI

Townsend Deprivation Index

BMI

Body Mass Index