Breastfeeding and association with refractive error in young Singapore Chinese children

Abstract

Purpose The objective of this study was to investigate an association between spherical refractive error and breastfeeding.MethodsStrabismus, amblyopia, and refractive errors in Singaporean preschoolers (STARS) is a cross-sectional population-based study of 3009 Chinese children aged 6-72 months conducted between June 2006 and September 2008 in Singapore. Parents were asked about the history of breastfeeding in face-to-face interviews. Children without cycloplegia or without refraction assessment were excluded. The final sample analysed was 2639 children (1375 male, 1264 female).ResultsOut of those who were breastfed, 842 (41.3%) were breastfed for more than 3 months and 599 (29.4%) were breastfed longer than 6 months. The prevalence of myopia, defined as the spherical equivalent refraction of the right eye of at least 0.5 dioptres (D), was 11.3% (95% CI (10.1, 12.5)). The mean spherical equivalent refraction of breastfed children was 0.12 D higher than that of children who were not breastfed (P-value = 0.03). Breastfeeding, however, was not associated with myopia (adjusted OR = 0.85; 95% CI (0.62, 1.18)).ConclusionsThe results show that breastfeeding is associated with more hyperopic spherical equivalent refraction in young Chinese children in Singapore. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.