CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 8,040Breastfeeding Practices and InfluencesInfant Nutrition and HealthChild Nutrition and Water Access

Breastfeeding in the 21st century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect

Open access
Victora, Cesar G, Bahl, Rajiv, Barros, Aluísio J D, França, Giovanny V A, Horton, Susan, Krasevec, Julia, Murch, Simon, Sankar, Mari Jeeva +2 more·2016·The Lancet
DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01024-7
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The importance of breastfeeding in low-income and middle-income countries is well recognised, but less consensus exists about its importance in high-income countries. In low-income and middle-income countries, only 37% of children younger than 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed. With few exceptions, breastfeeding duration is shorter in high-income countries than in those that are resource-poor. Our meta-analyses indicate protection against child infections and malocclusion, increases in intelligence, and probable reductions in overweight and diabetes. We did not find associations with allergic disorders such as asthma or with blood pressure or cholesterol, and we noted an increase in tooth decay with longer periods of breastfeeding. For nursing women, breastfeeding gave protection against breast cancer and it improved birth spacing, and it might also protect against ovarian cancer and type 2 diabetes. The scaling up of breastfeeding to a near universal level could prevent 823,000 annual deaths in children younger than 5 years and 20,000 annual deaths from breast cancer. Recent epidemiological and biological findings from during the past decade expand on the known benefits of breastfeeding for women and children, whether they are rich or poor.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01024-7

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The same analysis found that breastfeeding was associated with reduced maternal risks of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

    “The same analysis found that breastfeeding was associated with improved maternal health outcomes including reduced risks of breast cancer (OR 0.81 [95% CI 0.77-0.86]),ovarian cancer (OR 0.70 [95% CI 0.64-0.75]),and type 2 diabetes (OR 0.68 [95% CI 0.57-0.82]).”

    From 15. Management of Diabetes in Pregnancy: <i>Standards of Care in Diabetes—2024</i> (2024) · cites this paper as [144]

    The “Effects on the mother” section reports an inverse association with breast cancer, a 30% reduction in ovarian cancer associated with longer breastfeeding, and a maternal type 2 diabetes odds ratio of 0.68 (95% CI 0.57–0.82). These support the three associations and the ovarian cancer and diabetes figures in the citing sentence. The passages available from our copy do not substantiate its specific breast-cancer OR of 0.81 (95% CI 0.77–0.86). No page number is supplied for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • An analysis of 28 systematic reviews and meta-analyses found that breastfeeding was associated with reduced infant mortality due to infectious diseases at <6 months of age, reduced respiratory infections in children aged <2 years, and reduced asthma or wheezing in children aged 5-18 years.

    “An analysis of 28 systematic reviews and meta-analyses of associations between breastfeeding and outcomes in children found that breastfeeding was associated with numerous health benefits for children such as reduced infant mortality due to infectious diseases at <6 months of age (odds ratio [OR] 0.22-0.59across studies), reduced respiratory infections in children aged <2 years, and reduced asthma”

    From 15. Management of Diabetes in Pregnancy: <i>Standards of Care in Diabetes—2024</i> (2024) · cites this paper as [144]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Breastfeeding provides long-term protection against ovarian and breast cancer for mothers.

    “as well as long term protection against ovarian and breast cancer (Victora et al., 2016).”

    From The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development (2023) · cites this paper as Victora et al., 2016

    The Effects on the mother section reports an inverse association between breastfeeding duration and breast cancer, and a meta-analysis associates longer breastfeeding with reduced ovarian cancer risk. The Conclusions section says breastfeeding prevents breast cancer but describes protection against ovarian cancer as likely, so the unqualified claim overstates the evidence for ovarian cancer. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Several meta-analytic reviews have shown that breastfeeding during infancy protects against infant infections, infection-related mortality, and malocclusion.

    “Several meta-analytic reviews have demonstrated that breastfeeding during infancy protects against infant infections and infection-related mortalities as well as the development of malocclusion”

    From Benefits of a bedtime routine in young children: Sleep, development, and beyond. (2018) · cites this paper as [80]

  • Emerging evidence suggests breastfeeding may lower the likelihood of child overweight status and diabetes.

    “There is emerging evidence that breastfeeding may reduce the likelihood of child overweight status and diabetes”

    From Benefits of a bedtime routine in young children: Sleep, development, and beyond. (2018) · cites this paper as [80]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. [23]23. Horta BL, Victora CG. Short-term effects of breastfeeding: a systematic review of the benefits of breastfeeding on diarhoea and pneumonia mortality. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2013.
  2. [26]26. Horta BL, Victora CG. Long-term effects of breastfeeding: a systematic review. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2013.
  3. [27]27. Horta et al. Systematic review of effects of breastfeeding on intelligence, blood pressure, overweight/obesity, cholesterol, and diabetes. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).
  4. [68]68. Sankar J et al. Systematic review of breastfeeding and child mortality. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).
  5. [69]69. Lodge et al. Systematic review of breastfeeding and allergic disease, otitis media and dental caries. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).
  6. [70]70. Giugliani et al. Systematic review of breastfeeding and infant nutrition. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).
  7. [71]71. Peres et al. Systematic review of breastfeeding and malocclusion. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).
  8. [72]72. Chowdhury et al. Systematic review on the effects of breastfeeding on maternal health. Acta Paediatrica (submitted).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Victora, C. G., Bahl, R., Barros, A. J. D., França, G. V. A., Horton, S., Krasevec, J., Murch, S., Sankar, M. J., Walker, N., & Rollins, N. C.
Affiliations
  • Universidade Federal de Pelotas (BR)
  • World Health Organization (CH)
  • University of Waterloo (CA)
  • United Nations Children's Fund (US)
  • University Hospital Coventry (GB)
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (IN)
Corresponding author
Victora, Cesar G
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-01
Volume
387
Issue
10017
Pages
475-490
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
DOI
10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01024-7
OpenAlex
W2267159071
Cited by
8,040
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 643 · 2025: 703 · 2024: 777 · 2023: 1034 · 2022: 941 · 2021: 993 · 2020: 1097 · 2019: 642 · 2018: 610 · 2017: 359 · 2016: 230 · 2015: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
FWCI
83.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Lancet (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • WHO
  • Nutricia
  • Mead Johnson
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Breastfeeding Practices and Influences
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
Keywords
breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, breastfeeding duration, pediatric infection, child malnutrition, child intelligence, childhood overweight, type 2 diabetes, asthma, dental caries, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, birth spacing, child mortality, low-income countries, high-income countries
MeSH terms
Asthma, Breast Feeding, Breast Neoplasms, Child, Child, Preschool, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Humans, Hypersensitivity, Income, Intelligence, Malocclusion, Maternal Mortality, Global Health, Child Mortality, Overweight

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review