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(Circulation. 2004;109:e9017-e9027.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Circulation Newswriter

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

From This Week’s Issue of Circulation: Breast-Feeding May Reduce Later Blood Pressure

Mothers who breast-feed their babies today may be lowering their children’s blood pressure later, said researchers in a report in this week’s issue of the journal Circulation ( Circulation. 2004;109:1259–1266[Abstract/Free Full Text]).

Richard M. Martin, MSc, MFPH, and colleagues from the Division of Child Health at the University of Bristol in Britain examined 7276 singleton 71/2-year-old children born at term in 1991 and 1992. Complete data were available for 4763 of the children. The blood pressures of the children who had been breast-fed were, on average, 1.2 mm Hg lower than those of children who had never been breast-fed. The differences decreased but remained statistically significant in models that controlled for social, economic, maternal, and physical characteristics. The differences were the same whether the breast-feeding was done part-time or exclusively. The researchers found that for every 3 months of breast-feeding, the children had a 0.2-mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure.

"Even this small reduction may have important population-health implications, because an increased mortality risk is observed across the blood pressure distribution and not just above threshold levels. A 1% reduction in population systolic blood pressure levels is associated with an 1.5% reduction in all-cause mortality, equivalent to a lessening in premature mortality of 8000 and 2000 deaths per year in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively . . . the wider promotion of breast-feeding is a potential component of the public health strategy to reduce population levels of blood pressure," the researchers wrote.

From the 2004 Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology
NEW ORLEANS, La—Red dresses, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]