PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Reneé Pereyra-Elías
AU  - Claire Carson
AU  - Maria A Quigley
TI  - Association between breastfeeding duration and educational achievement in England: results from the Millennium Cohort Study
AID  - 10.1136/archdischild-2022-325148
DP  - 2023 Aug 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood
PG  - 665--672
VI  - 108
IP  - 8
4099  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/8/665.short
4100  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/8/665.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child2023 Aug 01; 108
AB  - Objective To evaluate the association between breastfeeding duration and educational outcomes at the end of secondary education among children from the Millennium Cohort Study.Design Cohort study comparing school results at age 16 according to breastfeeding duration.Setting England.Participants Children born in 2000–2002 (nationally representative sample).Exposure Self-reported breastfeeding duration (categorised).Main outcome measures Standardised school assessments taken at the end of secondary education (General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs), marked 9–1) in English and Mathematics, categorised as: ‘fail, marks <4’, ‘low pass, marks 4–6’ and ‘high pass, marks ≥7 (equivalent to A–A*)’. Additionally, overall achievement was measured using the ‘attainment 8’ score (adding the marks of eight GCSEs, English and Mathematics double weighted; 0–90).Results Approximately 5000 children were included. Longer breastfeeding was associated with better educational outcomes. For example, after full adjustment for socioeconomic markers and maternal cognitive ability, in comparison with children who were never breastfed, those who were breastfed for longer were more likely to have a high pass in their English and Mathematics GCSEs, and less likely to fail the English GCSE (but not the Mathematics GCSE). Additionally, compared with those never breastfed, those breastfed for at least 4 months had, on average, a 2–3 point higher attainment 8 score (coefficients: 2.10, 95% CI 0.06 to 4.14 at 4–6 months; 2.56, 95% CI 0.65 to 4.47 at 6–12 months and 3.09, 95% CI 0.84 to 5.35 at ≥12 months).Conclusions A longer breastfeeding duration was associated with modest improvements in educational outcomes at age 16, after controlling for important confounders.Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data may be obtained from a third party on request. The datasets used for this study are publicly available in the UK Data Service: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/series/series?id=2000031Access to educational data requires an additional request and analyses should be conducted within a data safe haven. Data citation: University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: First Survey, 2001-2003. [data collection]. 13th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 4683, DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-4683-5University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: Second Survey, 2003-2005. [data collection]. 10th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5350, DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-5350-5University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: Third Survey, 2006. [data collection]. 8th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5795, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5795-5University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: Fourth Survey, 2008. [data collection]. 8th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 6411, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-6411-8University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: Fifth Survey, 2012. [data collection]. 5th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 7464, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7464-5University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2020). Millennium Cohort Study: Sixth Survey, 2015. [data collection]. 7th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 8156, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8156-8University of London, Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (2020). Millennium Cohort Study: Longitudinal Family File, 2001-2018. [data collection]. 4th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 8172, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8172-4University College London, UCL Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Department for Education. (2021). Millennium Cohort Study: Linked Education Administrative Datasets (National Pupil Database), England: Secure Access. [data collection]. 2nd Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 8481, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8481-2.