Economic advantages of breast-feeding in an HMO: setting a pilot study

We performed a pilot study on newborns randomly chosen from term singleton deliveries born to mothers in an HMO group between September 1992 and August 1993. Breast-fed infants were breast-feeding at 6 months (n = 41), whereas bottle-fed infants were bottle-fed from birth (n = 107), Medical care and costs for the first 12 months were retrospectively analyzed, including office visits, drug prescriptions, and hospitalizations. Both groups had similar numbers of office visits and pharmacy costs. Breast-fed infants had fewer inpatient admissions (0.13 vs. 0.20 discharges per 1,000 babies), and their average total medical costs were $200 less than those of bottle-fed infants. Extrapolating to the total number of deliveries during this period, an increase in breast-feeding from the current rate (17%) to the Healthy People 2000 goal (50%) could save up to $140,000 annually.