title: Protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding against hand, foot and mouth disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Infants who are exclusively breastfed receive natural protection against some infectious agents. This study examined whether there was protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding on the occurrence of hand, foot and mouth disease, which was an emerging infectious disease among children in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community-based case-control study was carried out among children age 4 years or younger in Guangdong Province, China. Cases were newly diagnosed hand, foot and mouth disease. Controls were randomly sampled from healthy children from the nearby village. Unconditional logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for exclusive breastfeeding after adjusting for potential confounding factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 316 cases and 566 controls were included in the analysis. Significantly beneficial effect of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months was observed for hand, foot and mouth disease occurrence. The overall OR was 0.63 (95% CI: 0.47-0.85) for exclusive breastfeeding compared with mixed feeding type. The age-specific analyses indicated that the protective effect persisted till the age of 28 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that exclusive breastfeeding might have protective effect against HFMD infection among the children within 28 months of age.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health, Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, 511430, China. linhualiang2002@163.com.
authors.forename: Hualiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. cdcslm@126.com.
authors.forename: Limei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. linjy1957@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Jinyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. hjf@cdcp.org.cn.
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. dapgdeis@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. kangmin@cdcp.org.cn.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. zyh@cdcp.org.cn.
authors.forename: Hanri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health, Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, 511430, China. mawj@gdiph.gov.cn.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 160, Qunxian Road, Panyu, Guangzhou, 511430, China. zyh@cdcp.org.cn.
authors.forename: Yonghui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001942:Breast Feeding; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003153:Community Health Services; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006232:Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors