A recent study specified that the breastfeeding period is linked to improved cognitive scores from age five until 14, even after controlling for socioeconomic position and maternal cognitive ability.

A report from the EurekAlert! indicated that past research found a link between breastfeeding and "standardized intelligence scores," although a causal link is still being argued.

Improved cognitive effects would potentially be described by other characteristics like socioeconomics and maternal intelligence of the mothers who breastfeed their babies.

In this new study led by the United Kingdom-based University of Oxford's Reneé Pereyra-Elías, Maria Quigley, and Claire Carson, the authors analyzed data on more than 7,800 infants born between 2000 and 2002 and followed until the age of 14 years as part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study.

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Breastfeeding
(Photo: PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images)
Mothers nurse their children during the ‘7th Mexican Breastfeeding Festival’ to mark the World Breastfeeding Week at the Botanic Garden of the Chapultepec Park in Mexico City on August 4, 2018.

Link Between Breastfeeding and Cognition

The cohort of the study published in PLoS ONE was not particularly designed to address the link between breastfeeding and cognition, but part of the collection of information on the period of any breastfeeding, duration of exclusive breastfeeding, verbal cognitive scores at ages five, seven, 11 and 14, spatial cognitive scores at ages five, seven and 11, and potential cofounders which include socioeconomic characteristics and maternal cognition as based on a vocabulary test.

The unadjusted associations discovered that longer breastfeeding durations were linked to higher verbal and spatial cognitive scores at all ages up to 14 and 114 years old, respectively.

After taking the distinctions between socioeconomic position and maternal cognitive ability into account, children who were breastfed for longer had a higher score in cognitive measures up to 14 years of age compared to children who were not breastfed.

Longer periods of breastfeeding were linked to mean cognitive scores of 0.08 to 0.26 standard deviation higher than the mean cognitive score of individuals who never breastfed. The difference may appear small for an individual child, although it could be essential at the population level.

Longer Breastfeeding Duration Leads to Better Cognition

As indicated in a related Neuroscience News report, the authors concluded that a modest link between breastfeeding duration and cognitive scores prevailed after adjusting for socioeconomics and maternal intelligence.

The study investigators also added, "there is some debate about whether breastfeeding a baby" for a longer duration of time enhances their cognitive development.

In the UK, women who have higher educational qualifications, and are more advantaged economically, are inclined to breastfeed for longer. Furthermore, this group is inclined to score more highly on cognitive tests.

These differences could explain why babies who breastfeed for longer are doing better in cognitive analyses. Nonetheless, in this study, the researchers found that even after taking the differences into account, children breastfed for longer had a higher score in cognitive measures up to 14 years of age compared to children who were not breastfed.

Related information about breastfeeding and cognition is shown on Local 12's YouTube video below:

 

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