A prospective population-based cohort study of lactation and cardiovascular disease mortality: the HUNT study

Abstract

Background: Recent studies suggest that lactation has long-term effects on risk for cardiovascular disease in women, but the effects on cardiovascular mortality are less well known.

Method: In a Norwegian population-based prospective cohort study, we studied the association of lifetime duration of lactation with cardiovascular mortality in 21,889 women aged 30 to 85 years who attended the second Nord-Trøndelag Health Survey (HUNT2) in 1995-1997. The cohort was followed for mortality through 2010 by a linkage with the Cause of Death Registry. Adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for death from all causes and cardiovascular disease were calculated using Cox regression.

Results: During follow-up, 1,246 women died from cardiovascular disease. Parous women younger than 65 years who had never lactated had a higher cardiovascular mortality than the reference group of women who had lactated 24 months or more (HR 2.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28, 5.99). There was some evidence of a U-shaped association, where women who reported lactating 7-12 months had a HR of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.27, 1.09). No clear associations were observed among women 65 years or older.

Conclusions: Excess cardiovascular mortality rates were observed among parous women younger than 65 years who had never lactated. These findings support the hypothesis that lactation may have long-term influences on maternal cardiovascular health.

Figure 1

Risk of death from cardiovascular disease associated with five categories of lifetime lactation duration for women <65 years (n = 15,500) with lifetime lactation duration ≥ 24 months as the reference category: Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Adjusted for age, smoking status, physical activity, education, marital status and parity. Number of women in each category of lifetime duration of breastfeeding, with number of deaths in brackets, 0 months: n = 532 (11), 1–6 months: n = 3,286 (24), 7–12 months: n = 3,951 (15), 13–23 months: n = 4,662 (38), ≥ 24 months: n = 3,069 (21).