Can the duration of breastfeeding affect oral health on adulthood?

This study aims to explore the association between breastfeeding duration and self-perceived oral health at age 46 while accounting for various sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.

This is a secondary data analysis of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), which follows the lives of individuals born in the UK during a single week in 1970. Information on breastfeeding duration was collected via interviews and categorized as: never, less than 3 months, and 3 months or more. Self-perceived oral health at age 46 was dichotomized into "good" (excellent, very good, good) and "poor" (fair, poor) based on the responses to a single question on a self-administered questionnaire. Covariates included cohort member (CM)'s sex, marital status, education level, and social class in addition to maternal education, father's social class and family ethnicity. Logistic regression modelling was used to assess the association between breastfeeding duration and self-perceived adult oral health.

The unadjusted model showed that breastfeeding for 3 months or over reduced the odds of poor self-perceived oral health by 20% (95% CI: 0.67-0.95). This association was completely explained by sociodemographic characteristics.

Despite the well documented benefits of breastfeeding, the duration of breastfeeding did not appear to influence the self-perceived oral health of the participants at age 46.