Abstract
Asthma is the leading cause of hospitalization in Australian children and its prevalence is increasing worldwide (Peat & Li 1999). In developed nations the increase in prevalence of childhood asthma has been paralleled by an increase in childhood obesity (WHO 1998). There has been considerable debate as to whether formula-feeding is a risk factor for childhood obesity (von Kries et al. 2001). Furthermore, investigators have speculated that obesity may be a causal factor in the inception of childhood asthma and a number of studies have shown positive associations between body mass index (BMI=weight/(kg)/(m)2) or obesity with asthma (von Mutius et al. 2001). Breastfeeding has been shown to protect against overweight and obesity (von Kries et al. 1999; Hediger et al. 2001) as well as asthma in childhood (Oddy et al. 1999), although the relationship between breastfeeding and childhood asthma remains speculative (Wright et al. 2001).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Drake C, Fisher L. Prognostic models and the propensity score. Int J Epidemiol 1995;24:183–187.
Hediger ML, Overpeck MD, Kuczmarski RJ, Ruan WJ. Association between infant breastfeeding and overweight in young children. JAMA 2001;285:2453–2460.
Newnham JP, Evans SF, Michael CA, Stanley FJ, Landau LI. Effects of frequent ultrasound during pregnancy: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 1993;342:887–891.
Oddy WH, Holt PG, Sly PD, Read AW, Landau LI, Stanley FJ, Kendall GE, Burton PR. Association between breastfeeding and asthma in 6 year old children: findings of a prospective birth cohort study. BMJ 1999;319:815–819.
Peat JK, Li J. Reversing the trend: reducing the prevalence of asthma. J Allergy Clin Immun 1999;103:1–10.
Rosenbaum PR, Rubin DB. The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika 1983;70:41–55.
von Kries R, Koletzko B, Sauerwald T, von Mutius E, Barnert D, Grunert V, von Vos H. Breastfeeding and obesity: cross sectional study. BMJ 1999;319:147–150.
von Kries R, Hermann M, Grunert VP, von Mutius E. Is obesity a risk factor for childhood asthma? Allergy 2001;56:318–322.
von Mutius E, Schwartz J, Neas LM, Dockery D, Weiss ST. Relation of body mass index to asthma and atopy in children: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study III. Thorax 2001 ;56:835–838.
[WHO] World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1998.
Wright AL, Holberg CJ, Taussig LM, Martinez FD. Factors influencing the relation of infant feeding to asthma and recurrent wheeze in childhood. Thorax 2001;56:192–197.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this paper
Cite this paper
Oddy, W.H., Sherriff, J.L., de Klerk, N.H., Kendall, G.E. (2004). Breastfeeding, Body Mass Index, and Asthma and Atopy in Children. In: Pickering, L.K., Morrow, A.L., Ruiz-Palacios, G.M., Schanler, R.J. (eds) Protecting Infants through Human Milk. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 554. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4242-8_47
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4242-8_47
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3461-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4242-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive