Relationship between type of infant feeding and hospitalization for gastroenteritis in Shanghai infants.

This analysis examines the relationship between feeding type and hospitalization for gastroenteritis based on the combined data of 3285 infants from the Jing-An and Chang-Ning epidemiological studies of children's health in Shanghai. Infants were classified into "ever" and "never" breastfeeding groups. The risk of hospitalization for gastroenteritis in the ever breastfed infants was significantly lower than that in the never breastfed infants, 3.4 percent versus 5.3 percent (p < .01). After controlling for covariates, the odds ratio was 0.66 (95% confidence interval = 0.46-0.94). The data suggest that breastfeeding offers moderate protection against hospitalization for gastroenteritis in Shanghai infants.