Working paper
Breastfeeding and Child Disability: A Comparison of Siblings from the United States
NBER working paper series, Vol.19940
National Bureau of Economic Research
02/2014
DOI: 10.3386/w19940
Abstract
Little is known about whether breastfeeding may prevent disabilities throughout childhood. We evaluate the effects of breastfeeding on child disability using data from the National Survey of Family Growth merged to the National Health Interview Survey for a large nationally representative sample of children aged 1 to 18 years from the U.S. including over 3,000 siblings who are discordant on breastfeeding status/duration. We focus on a mother fixed effect model that compares siblings in order to account for family-level unobservable confounders and employ multiple specifications including a dynamic model that accounts for disability status of the prior child. Breastfeeding the child for a longer duration is associated with a lower risk of child disability, by about 0.2 percentage-points per month of breastfeeding. This effect is only observed on the intensive margin among breastfed children, as any breastfeeding has no effect on the extensive margin. We conclude that very short breastfeeding durations are unlikely to have an effect on reducing disability risk.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Breastfeeding and Child Disability: A Comparison of Siblings from the United States
- Creators
- George L Wehby - University of Iowa, Health Management and Policy
- Resource Type
- Working paper
- Publication Details
- NBER working paper series, Vol.19940
- DOI
- 10.3386/w19940
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research; Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Number of pages
- 31 pages
- Grant note
- The author has no financial or non-financial disclosures for this work. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- Date posted
- 02/2014
- Academic Unit
- Preventive and Community Dentistry; Health Management and Policy; Economics; Public Policy Center (Archive)
- Record Identifier
- 9984222153902771
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