Long-term effects of breastfeeding

Overview

In 2007, WHO carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis on the long-term consequences of breastfeeding. The Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health of the WHO has now commissioned an update of this review. The following long-term outcomes were reviewed: blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, serum cholesterol, overweight and obesity, and intellectual performance. These outcomes are of great interest to researchers, as made evident by the number of publications identified: 60 new publications were identified since 2006. This report describes the methods, results and conclusions of this updated review.