Study Links Breastfeeding to Lower Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Women who choose to breastfeed for a longer period of time are less likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, claims a new study.

The latest study documented in the journal Rheumatology, was conducted on more than 7,000 older Chinese women. It revealed that breastfeeding was strongly related to a reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Mothers who breastfed, their risk of rheumatoid arthritis came down by almost half compared to those who never breastfed.

There were studies conducted prior to this that focused on the association between breastfeeding and RA, but the results produced were mixed.  It is a well known fact that breastfeeding benefits infants. But there has been growing evidence that breastfeeding has a positive impact on the health of the mothers too. This latest cross sectional study examined the association between breastfeeding and RA and also on the intake of oral contraceptives.

The subjects of age 50 years and older mainly consisted of residents of South China. The cultural habits of these women differ from those in West. The study was led by Professor Peymane Adab in collaboration with colleagues and they worked on the data of 7349 women  in the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort.

Using questionnaires the researchers gathered data on breastfeeding history, socio demographics, diseases and lifestyle habits, obstetric history and history of intake of oral contraceptives. Apart from this, the study participants were examined for signs of RA

The participants had to provide data on their pregnancies and number of live births.

The researchers noticed that a majority of the participants had at least one live birth out of which 95 percent had breastfed their baby for almost one month. A total of 11 percent of women took contraceptive pills for short durations. The mean age for the first pregnancy was 24 years and the mean age for diagnosis of RA was 47.5 years.

For those who had at least one live birth and those had breastfed, the risk of having RA was almost halved for them. Increasing duration of breastfeeding was associated with decreasing risk of RA. There was no association between the use of contraceptive pills and RA.

The researchers concluded saying, "Women who took part in this study were born in the 1940s and 1950s, before China's one-child policy was introduced in the late 1970s, and at a time when breastfeeding was more prevalent. The consequent decline in breastfeeding supports the need for prospective studies to examine whether there will be a higher incidence of RA in the future. More importantly, replication of the association between breastfeeding and lower risk of RA in a different population reinforces the need for further research to understand the hormonal mechanisms involved in the onset of RA."