Beneficial effects of short-term breastfeeding versus non-breastfeeding in early life against childhood obesity: findings from the US-based population study NHANES

Table 1 Characteristics of the obesity group and normal weight group in the final sample

Variables		Normal weight		Obesity		P
Variables		N	Weighted %	N	Weighted %	P
Breastfed						0.416
Never		1099	31.7	274	7.3
Ever		1486	50.5	352	10.5
	≤ 3 months	910	31.4	219	6.9
	> 3 ~ 6 months	576	19.1	133	3.6
Gender						0.449
Male		1323	42.5	311	8.8
Female		1262	39.7	315	9.0
Age (year)						< 0.001
2		704	18.3	114	2.4
3		455	15.5	102	3.0
4		480	16.5	148	4.5
5		465	15.5	128	4.2
6		481	16.4	134	3.7
Race						< 0.001
Mexican American		447	12.2	161	3.9
Other Hispanic		278	7.6	94	2.5
Non-Hispanic White		728	40.1	138	6.7
Non-Hispanic Black		791	14.5	172	3.1
Other		341	7.9	61	1.5
Gender of household reference person^ζ						0.163
Male		830	38.3	192	7.2
Female		1223	44.5	306	10.0
Ratio of family income to poverty						0.014
< 1.85		1731	45.9	448	11.3
1.85 ~ 3.50		480	18.5	123	4.1
> 3.50		374	17.8	55	2.4
Mother smoked when pregnancy						0.401
Ever		384	12.6	82	2.4
Never		2201	69.7	544	15.4
Maternal age when born (year)						0.708
< 20		355	10.1	77	2.2
20 ~ 34		1935	61.8	473	13.2
≥ 35		295	10.4	76	2.4
Birth weight (kilogram)						< 0.001
< 2.5		354	9.8	46	1.2
2.5 ~ < 4		2088	67.0	507	14.3
≥ 4		143	5.4	73	2.3

^ζData were missing in the cycle of 2017-March 2020 Pre-Pandemic, so the descriptive statistics about this variable was only among the data from the other 4 cycles
The weights of categories were estimated due to the study design and the given weights of participants in the NHANES

ISSN: 1746-4358