Investigation of the Relationship between Breastfeeding and Leukemia in Children

Background: Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer. This cancer, considering its unknown cause(s), is considered as one of the most important health problems amongst children worldwide. The present study was aimed to determine the relationship between breastfeeding and leukemia in Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeast of Iran. Materials and methods: This case-control study was implemented on 120 children between 11 months and 17 years old with leukemia as the case group, and 240 children hospitalized due to other non-leukemia-related diseases in the study area (the mean age of children in both groups was about 8 years). The children were categorized according to age and gender. To determine the relationship between variables and the risk of leukemia morbidity, the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals was estimated through conditional logistic regression using Chi-square and Fisher's exact test and utilizing SPSS-16. Results: Out the 120 children with leukemia, about 60% were male and the age group of 5-9 years old was the most frequent age group (45%). The results of the study showed that breastfeeding was significantly associated with leukemia in children, P-value = 0.02(OR = 0.24, CI: 95%, 0.71-0.71). Conclusion: Regarding the protective role of breastfeeding, the necessary measures for training to maintain and promote breastfeeding and its continuity up to 2 years are required to be taken.