title: Breastfeeding leads to lower blood pressure in 7-year-old Japanese children: Tohoku Study of Child Development.
abstract: This study investigated the association between breastfeeding and both self-measured home blood pressure (HBP) and conventional blood pressure (CBP) in 7-year-old Japanese children. We obtained data pertaining to breastfeeding and blood pressure for 377 mother-offspring pairs from the Tohoku Study of Child Development, which is a prospective birth cohort study. Information on breastfeeding and other factors were obtained from parental questionnaires during the follow-up period. Based on the duration of breastfeeding as a major source of nutrition, mother-offspring pairs were divided into short-term (mean, 5.1 months) and long-term (mean, 11.3 months) breastfeeding groups. At the age of 7 years (84.4±1.8 months), each child's blood pressure was measured. The HBP in the long-term breastfeeding (LBF) group (92.9 mm Hg systolic/55.1 mm Hg diastolic) was significantly lower (P=0.006/0.04) than in the short-term breastfeeding group (94.7/56.4 mm Hg); however, there were no significant differences in the CBP measurements between the short- and LBF groups. Using multiple regression analysis, the duration of breastfeeding (greater than 8 months) was more strongly associated with HBP (P=0.008/0.05) than with CBP (P=0.4/0.9). Furthermore, the adjusted R-squared values for HBP (0.25/0.12) tended to be higher than those for CBP (0.07/0.03). These findings were independent of the birth weight. In conclusion, breastfeeding has a protective effect against elevated blood pressure even in young children, and subtle, but important, differences were precisely detected by self-measurements performed at home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Planning for Drug Development and Clinical Evaluation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Miki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosaka
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asayama
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Staessen
authors.forename: Takayoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohkubo
authors.forename: Katsuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Nozomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tatsuta
authors.forename: Naoyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kurokawa
authors.forename: Michihiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Takanao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Takuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Taku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Obara
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Metoki
authors.forename: Ryusuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuya
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakai
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Satoh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013997:Time Factors