ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1598141
This article is part of the Research TopicHuman Milk, Nutrition and Infant Development, Volume IIView all 5 articles
Relationship between breastfeeding duration, lifestyle and obesity in children aged 3-16 years: a cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
Yu Liu1
Yiyao Gu2Jie Mu2Zhi Duan2
Xixiang Wang1Xiuwen Ren1Lu Liu1Jingjing Xu1Chi Zhang3
Shaobo Zhou4Ning Ma1
Linhong Yuan1*Ying Wang2*- 1School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 2Suzhou Research Center of Medical School, Suzhou Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Suzhou, China, Suzhou, China
- 3School of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Illinois, United States
- 4Faculty of Engineering & Science, University of Greenwich, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Childhood obesity is emerging as an increasingly severe public health problem. Effective lifestyle and dietary interventions are urgently needed to prevent childhood obesity. The study explored the association of breastfeeding duration in early life and lifestyle habits with childhood obesity.Methods: A total of 541 children aged 3-16 at Suzhou Science and Technology City Hospital were included in this analysis. The participants were categorized into obesity group and non-obesity group. Assigned and calculated the score of lifestyle habits and the total score of lifestyle habits and breastfeeding. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk of obesity with breastfeeding and/or lifestyle habits scores, and ROC curves were applied to evaluate the accuracy of the models. SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) was used to explore the specified impact of variables.(1) The dietary habits of children with obesity were marked by consuming more meat-based foods, preferring heavier flavors food items, and having a habit of snacking before meals. (2) It is recommended that newborn be breastfed for 4 -12 months. (3) Healthy lifestyle habits and prolonged breastfeeding duration are both protective factors for childhood obesity respectively, and the synergistic impact is much more significant.Discussion: Prolonging breastfeeding duration appropriately and cultivating healthy dietary habits might contribute to prevention of childhood obesity.
Keywords: Children, Obesity, lifestyle, breastfeeding, dietary
Received: 22 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Gu, Mu, Duan, Wang, Ren, Liu, Xu, Zhang, Zhou, Ma, Yuan and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Linhong Yuan, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China
Ying Wang, Suzhou Research Center of Medical School, Suzhou Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Suzhou, China, Suzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.