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Table 2 Breastfeeding in relation to the age-specific odds of an infection within a 3-month period

From: The relationship between breastfeeding and reported respiratory and gastrointestinal infection rates in young children

Infection/symptoms

Age period

3 to 6 months

Age period

> 6 to 18 months

 

Breastfed

Yes vs. No

a-OR (95% CI)

 

Breastfed

Yes vs. No

a-OR (95% CI)

p-value

Respiratory

1.04 (0.91–1.19)

0.61

1.17 (1.09–1.26)

< 0.0001

With fever

0.82 (0.70–0.95)

0.008

1.08 (1.01–1.15)

0.04

Common cold

1.10 (0.97–1.26)

0.15

1.25 (1.17–1.34)

< 0.0001

Laryngitis and tracheitis

0.88 (0.52–1.49)

0.64

0.79 (0.63–0.97)

0.03

Influenza

 

0.85 (0.63–1.15)

0.29

Enterovirus

 

0.97 (0.71–1.33)

0.87

Tonsillitis or Streptococcal pharyngitis

 

1.02 (0.76–1.37)

0.91

Infection of the middle ear

0.76 (0.62–0.94)

0.01

0.89 (0.82–0.97)

0.008

Bronchitis and lower resp. infection

0.87 (0.71–1.06)

0.17

1.00 (0.91–1.10)

0.93

Conjunctivitis

1.17 (0.87–1.57)

0.29

0.86 (0.74–1.00)

0.04

Gastrointestinal

0.66 (0.53–0.83)

0.0003

0.96 (0.88–1.05)

0.96

With fever

0.58 (0.41–0.82)

0.0002

0.91 (0.79–1.03)

0.14

Infective gastroenteritis

0.55 (0.46–0.70)

< 0.0001

0.89 (0.81–0.98)

0.01

Gastroenteritis symptoms

0.69 (0.51–0.93)

0.02

1.05 (0.94–1.16)

0.40

  1. a-ORs = odds ratio are adjusted (a) for gender, age of child, age of mother at birth, maternal education, single child, number of rooms in household, parental working and smoking status when child was 9 months of age, country, if the child was a first degree relative of a type 1 diabetic individual, whether daycare or social group had started at the last visit, and season of the year at the start of the interval (i.e. last visit). Bold face type indicates statistical significance with a p-value < 0.05