Lactation Duration Associated With Diabetes Risk

Increasing lactation duration is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes in women who are breastfeeding or have breastfed, according to the results of a new study.

To conduct their observational study, the researchers assessed 1238 women aged 18 to 30 years who did not have diabetes at baseline and participated in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.

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To be included in the analysis, participants must have had 1 or more live births after baseline (1985-1986), reported lactation duration, and were screened for diabetes up to 7 times during follow up (until 2016).

After 30 years, 182 incident cases of diabetes were reported during 27,598 person-years. The overall incidence rate was 6.6 cases per 1000 person-years.

Women who had reported gestational diabetes had a higher incidence rate (18.0 cases per 1000 person-years) than those who did not report gestational diabetes (5.1 cases per 1000 person-years).

“Among young white and black women in this observational 30-year study, increasing lactation duration was associated with a strong, graded 25% to 47% relative reduction in the incidence of diabetes even after accounting for prepregnancy biochemical measures, clinical and demographic risk factors, gestational diabetes, lifestyle behaviors, and weight gain that prior studies did not address,” the researchers concluded.

The researchers also say that more research is needed to better understand the mechanisms between lactation and diabetes risk.

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Gunderson EP, Lewis CE, Lin Y, et al. Lactation duration and progression to diabetes in women across the childbearing years. 2018;178(3):328-337. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.7978.