Breastfeeding duration is associated with offspring's adherence to prudent dietary pattern in adulthood: results from the Nutritionist's Health Study

Little is known about the long-term effect of breastfeeding on dietary habits. We examined the association between breastfeeding duration and adherence to current dietary patterns of young women. This was a cross-sectional analysis of 587 healthy women aged <= 45 years, undergraduates or nutrition graduates. Maternal characteristics and breastfeeding duration [<6; 6-<12; >= 12 months (reference)] were recalled. Diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire and patterns were identified using factor analysis by principal component. Adherence to patterns was categorized in tertiles; the first (T1 = reference) was compared to T2 + T3 (moderate-to-high adherence). Logistic regression was performed considering the minimal sufficient adjustment recommended by the directed acyclic graph. Median age was 22 (interquartile range (IQR) 20; 27) years and body mass index (BMI) 22.2 (IQR 20.4; 25.0) kg/m(2). The four dietary patterns identified (Processed,Prudent,BrazilianandLacto-vegetarian) explained 27% of diet variance. Women breastfed for Prudentpattern (odds ratio (OR) = 0.53,p= 0.04). Breastfeeding was not associated with the other patterns. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was directly associated with moderate-to-high adherence to theProcessedpattern (OR = 2.01,p= 0.03) and inversely to thePrudentpattern (OR = 0.52,p= 0.02). Higher adherence to theBrazilianpattern was associated with proxies of low socioeconomic status and theLacto-vegetarianpattern with the opposite. Confirmation in prospective studies of the association found in this study between breastfeeding with thePrudentpattern in adult offspring could suggest that early feeding practices influence long-term dietary habits, which could then affect the risk of nutrition-related diseases.