https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1030-3805
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ABSTRACT
We aimed to analyze the effects of exclusive breastfeeding duration on the occurrence and course of pneumonia in infants aged up to 6 months. Prospective case-control study. This study was conducted from August 2020 to August 2022 at a maternity and child health hospital in China. A total of 218 infants up to 6 months of age with pneumonia were included in the analyses. Health data were obtained using a hospitalization information system or an interview-based questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the data. The incidence of pneumonia, hospitalization duration, and costs to participants were significantly affected by the duration of exclusive breastfeeding (p < 0.01). The incidence of pneumonia among participants with different exclusive breastfeeding durations also differed significantly (p < 0.01). The shorter the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, the higher the incidence of pneumonia among infants. We found that the longer the exclusive breastfeeding duration in infants up to 6 months of age, the lower the recurrence of pneumonia, the shorter the hospital stay, and the lower the hospital costs. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants up to 6 months of age should be increased as much as possible to reduce the occurrence of pneumonia and hospital costs.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Availability of Data and Materials
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Statement
We have posted our original manuscript to a preprint server of Research Square before we have submitted it to a journal for peer review (March 16, 2023), which can be accessed at: Kang, Y., Zheng, Q., Chen, X., Huang, Y., & Fan, Z. (2023). Effects of exclusive breastfeeding duration on the occurrence and course of pneumonia in infants up to six months. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2609997/v1.