TY - JOUR T1 - Breastfeeding and risk of childhood asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00504-2021 SP - 00504-2021 AU - Mike Xue AU - Emily Dehaas AU - Nagendra Chaudhary AU - Paul O'Byrne AU - Imran Satia AU - Om P. Kurmi Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2021/08/19/23120541.00504-2021.abstract N2 - Objective To investigate the relationship between breastfeeding and the development of pediatric asthma.Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted with MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health source databases. Retrospective/prospective cohorts in children <18 years old with breastfeeding exposure reported were included. The primary outcome was a diagnosis of asthma by a physician or using a guideline-based criterion. A secondary outcome was asthma severity.Results Forty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Thirty-seven studies reported the primary outcome of physician/guideline-diagnosed asthma, and five studies reported effects on asthma severity. Children with longer duration/more breastfeeding compared to less have a lower risk of asthma (OR=0.84; 95% CI: 0.75–0.93, I2=62.4%). Similarly, a lower risk of asthma was found in children who had more exclusive breastfeeding versus less exclusive breastfeeding (0.81; 0.72–0.91, I2=44%). Further stratified analysis of different age groups demonstrated a lower risk of asthma in the 0–2 age group (0.73; 0.63–0.83) and the 3–6 age group (0.69; 0.55–0.87), there was no statistically significant effect on the 7+ age group.Conclusion The finding suggests that the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding are associated with a lower risk of asthma in children less than seven years of age.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Mike Xue has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Emily Dehaas has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Nagendra Chaudhary has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Paul O'Byrne has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Imran Satia has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Om P Kurmi has nothing to disclose. ER -