Breastfeeding Could Lower Hypertension Risk

Breastfeeding is associated with a decreased risk of hypertension in postmenopausal women, with the greatest effect observed among women who breastfeed more children for longer periods of time, according to a new study.

However, factors such as obesity and insulin resistance were found to interfere with the protective effect of breastfeeding on hypertension risk.
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For their study, the researchers evaluated data on 3119 non-smoking postmenopausal women aged 50 years or older who participated in the 2010-2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

The relationship between breastfeeding and hypertension was investigated via logistic regression analyses. The effects of obesity and insulin sensitivity on this relationship were assessed using mediation analyses.

Findings demonstrated a protective effect of breastfeeding on hypertension risk in this cohort. The odds ratios for hypertension were 0.49 for the highest quintile of number of breastfed children (5 to 11 children) and 0.55 for the highest quintile of duration of breastfeeding (96 to 324 months), compared with each of the lowest quintile groups.

Notably, results of the mediation analysis showed that increased insulin resistance significantly moderated the protective effect of having breastfed more children on the risk for hypertension. The researchers also observed that greater obesity and insulin resistance significantly attenuated the impact of longer breastfeeding duration on hypertension risk.

“More children breastfed and longer duration of breastfeeding were associated with lower risk of hypertension in postmenopausal women, and degree of obesity and insulin resistance moderated the breastfeeding-hypertension association,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Park S, Choi NK. Breastfeeding and maternal hypertension [Published online January 25, 2018]. Am J Hypertens. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajh/hpx219.