Effect of breastfeeding on risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract Purpose:This study aimed to investigate whether breastfeeding in early childhood affect the risk of devoloping IBD. Methods:In order to investigate the effect of breast milk on the development of IBD and in order to reduce the effects of genetic and environmental factors, the patient data obtained from the survey were compared to the data of their non-IBD siblings as a control group. Results: The data of 122 Crohn's disease patients were compared with the sibling group of 332 individuals, and the data of 182 ulcerative colitis patients with the sibling group of 508 individuals. Compared to the control group, it was determined that the proportion of those who never breastfed was statistically significantly higher in both the CD and UC groups (7.4% vs. 2.1% for CD, p=0.017 and 3.9% vs. 0.8% for UC, p=0.01), and the risk of disease increased significantly in those who wasn’t breastfed (OR= 3.70 [1.35-10.16] for CD, p=0.017 and OR= 5.07 for UC [1.47-17.53], p=0.010). It was determined that the protective effect increased against CD as the duration of breastfeeding increased, but that the protection increased with breastfeeding for up to 12 months for UC, and breastfeeding for more than 12 months did not provide additional protection. There was no relationship between breastfeeding and demographic and behavioral chracteristics of patients. Conclusions: Not having been breastfed in infancy increases the risk of developing both UC and CD, and as the duration of breastfeeding increases, the protection against disease risk increases.