Breastfeeding and maternal HIV-1 disease progression and mortality.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between breastfeeding and disease progression among HIV-infected women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.


METHODS
Cohort study design with Cox proportional hazards models.


RESULTS
The relative risk of death comparing women who recently had been breastfeeding to those who were not breastfeeding was 0.47 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.20). Neither breastfeeding status nor the duration of exclusive or partial breastfeeding was associated with HIV-1 disease progression, represented by death or development of a low CD4 cell count, anemia or excessive weight loss, in multivariate analyses. These associations remained insignificant when women with relatively low and high CD4 cell counts were analyzed separately.


CONCLUSIONS
There is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that breastfeeding is detrimental to the health of HIV-infected women.
Sedgh
Gilda
G
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Spiegelman
Donna
D
Larsen
Ulla
U
Msamanga
Gernard
G
Fawzi
Wafaie W
WW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss