Infant feeding and asthma: is breast milk best? |
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Authors: | Tiffany Green |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 610 Walnut Street, 707 WARF, Madison, WI 53726, USA |
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Abstract: | Asthma is the most commonly occurring chronic childhood disease in the United States and is the leading cause of hospitalization
and missed school days. In this article, I examine whether differences in asthma diagnosis can be attributed to differences
in breastfeeding incidence and duration. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey, I examine whether
unobserved heterogeneity in the breastfeeding decision plays a role in childhood asthma propensity. I use the recursive bivariate
probit framework to account for potential endogeneity by modeling the breastfeeding and asthma equations jointly. Results
indicate that after accounting for the unobserved heterogeneity found in infant feeding practices, breastfeeding leads to
lower rates of asthma diagnosis in children at age one. Breastfeeding for at least 3 months appears to have the strongest
effects in children diagnosed at age one. However, there are no discernible effects of breastfeeding on the incidence of asthma
by age three. These results indicate that breastfeeding can result in lower rates of wheezing and better respiratory health
in small children. |
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Keywords: | |
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