New study associates breastfeeding with improved performance in intelligence tests

A new study published in The Lancet Global Health in March 2015, associates breastfeeding with improved performance in intelligence tests 30 years later. The population-based birth cohort study of neonates was launched in 1982 in Brazil and gathered information from 3,493 participants. The findings conclude that breastfeeding might have an important effect in real life, by increasing educational attainment and income in adulthood.

The study by Cesar G Victora and colleagues is a long-term follow-up of a large sample, from birth in 1982 to 2012–13 to the mean age of 30·2 years. The exposure was breastfeeding and the outcome variables were intelligence—as assessed by a widely used intelligence test (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd version)—educational attainment, and income. The study contributes important knowledge about three issues related to the effects of breastfeeding on cognitive development:

• First, the study’s findings show the effects of breastfeeding in a cultural and economic setting without strong social patterning of breastfeeding
• Second, the study investigates long-term effects of breastfeeding during a substantial part of the full lifespan
• Third, the study describes life course consequences of breastfeeding by incorporating socially important outcomes, such as education and income

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