Breastfeeding and later developmental outcome
The following tables summarize the results of two studies
of the effect of breastfeeding on children's test scores
at the ages of 5, 7, 9 and 15 to 17 years.
Fergusson et. al. (
Fergusson, 1982
) studied 950 New Zealand
children who had taken the Stanford-Binet (SB) test at 5 years of
age and the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-R)
at the age of 7 years.
| Breast Fed |
SB at 5 years |
WISC-R at 7 years |
| not |
98.5 |
98.8 |
| < 4 months |
101.1 |
100.7 |
| > 4 months |
100.9 |
101.1 |
|
p < 0.001 |
p < 0.01 |
Horwood and Fergusson (
Horwood, 1998
) reported results on
the effect of breastfeeding on test scores at age 9 and academic
achievment by the age of 15 to 17 years.
Their study of 1025 New Zealand children
used the WISC-R test and a simple count of the
number of subjects in which students received certificates of school completion
(SC).
| Breast Fed |
WISC-R at 9 years |
SC at 15-17 years |
| not |
98.9 |
3.05 |
| < 4 months |
99.8 |
3.22 |
| 4 to 7 months |
100.6 |
3.40 |
| > 8 months |
101.4 |
3.57 |
|
p < 0.005 |
p < 0.005 |
Definitions:
| SB: |
Stanford-Binet test. |
| WISC-R: |
Weschler Intelligence Scale forChildren - Revised.
|
| SC: |
Number of subjects in which students received certificates of
school completion. |
|
