Funding for study into benefits of breastfeeding
06 Apr 09
An Oxford economist, from the Centre for Time Use Research, is part of a team that has won funding for a wide-ranging study into the effects of breastfeeding.
The £240,000 project, the most comprehensive study of its kind in the UK, will examine the effects of breastfeeding not just on children, but also on mothers and employers.
Dr Almudena Sevilla-Sanz from Oxford University is collaborating with a research team at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University. They are carrying out research to explore the relationship between breastfeeding and a children’s early development including early literacy and numeracy skills at Key Stages 1 and 2. The project will also examine whether there are links between breastfeeding and a child’s social development by examining areas like hyperactivity and peer problems.
The study will look to see if there is any link between breastfeeding and the health of mothers, for example in areas such as post natal depression. It will also explore the impact of family-friendly working practices on breastfeeding duration and the mothers’ decision to return to work.
Dr Sevilla-SanzI will look at the link between breastfeeding and maternal mental health. This is an area still underdeveloped, but that might well prove of crucial importance not only for mothers, but also for children.
Using two major data sets involving 15,000 children each, the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the Avon Longitudinal Survey of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the team believes this will be the most comprehensive pieces of research ever undertaken into the effects of breastfeeding. The analysis will be conducted using a range of economic and statistical techniques to disentangle the true effect of breastfeeding from other spurious associations.
Dr Sevilla-Sanz, who is a co-applicant on this project, said: 'I think the novelty in this project comes from the fact that we will will use very large and rich data sets, which will allow us to look at some questions that have not been asked before, and to try to answer them in an innovative way. For example, I will look at the link between breastfeeding and maternal mental health. This is an area still underdeveloped, but that might well prove of crucial importance not only for mothers, but also for children.'
Funding for the project has come from the Economic and Social Research Council.
The World Health organization currently recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and the continuation of breastfeeding alongside solid foods for two years. Despite this and various initiatives aimed at women from disadvantaged groups, breastfeeding rates in many developed countries remain low. In the UK only 76 per cent of mothers breastfeed initially, and more than a third of them stops by six weeks.