PLoS ONE (Jan 2015)

Breastfeeding and bone mass at the ages of 18 and 30: prospective analysis of live births from the Pelotas (Brazil) 1982 and 1993 cohorts.

  • Ludmila Correa Muniz,
  • Ana Maria Baptista Menezes,
  • Maria Cecília Formoso Assunção,
  • Fernando Cesar Wehrmeister,
  • Jeovany Martínez-Mesa,
  • Helen Gonçalves,
  • Marlos Rodrigues Domingues,
  • Denise Petrucci Gigante,
  • Bernardo Lessa Horta,
  • Fernando C Barros

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122759
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 4
p. e0122759

Abstract

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ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of total breastfeeding, breastfeeding duration and type of breastfeeding at 3 months of age on bone mass at 18 and 30 years.Study designA prospective, longitudinal study was conducted with two birth cohorts (1982 and 1993) in Pelotas, Southern Brazil. Measurements of bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) at 18 and 30 years of age were obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Information on breastfeeding was collected during the first 4 years of life. Analyses were performed by linear regression and stratified by sex.ResultsA total of 1109 and 3226 participants provided complete information on breastfeeding in early life and bone mass at 18 and 30 years, respectively. No association between breastfeeding and bone mass was observed in women at both ages nor among men at age 30. Among men at the age of 18, BMC and BMD were higher among those breastfed regardless of duration (p=0.032 and p=0.043, respectively).ConclusionsDespite a very weak positive effect of breastfeeding (yes/no) on BMC and BMD at age 18 in men, most findings pointed to a lack of association between breastfeeding and bone mass until young adulthood.