That both the Hoddinott et al. and MacArthur et al. randomized
trails find no significant changes in breastfeeding rates has important
policy implications. These results contrast sharply with the recent
recommendation by the USPSTF (p. 560), based on the assessment based on
meta analysis, that "there is moderate certainty that interventions to
promote and support breastfeeding have a moderate benefit." If these two
relatively large trails had been included in the meta analysis, the
estimated impacts might have been less or insignificant. In any case
these two studies cast doubt on whether the benefit-to-cost ratios for
public resources devoted to improving infant nutrition are likely to be
sufficiently high for policies to promote breast feeding of the types
examined in these studies.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, “Primary Care Interventions to
Promote Breastfeeding: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation
Statement,” Annals of Internal Medicine Volume 149:8 (21 October 2008),
560-565.
No competing interests.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
21 February 2009
Jere R. Behrman
Professor of Economics
none
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297, USA
Rapid Response:
Important implications for policy choices
That both the Hoddinott et al. and MacArthur et al. randomized trails find no significant changes in breastfeeding rates has important policy implications. These results contrast sharply with the recent recommendation by the USPSTF (p. 560), based on the assessment based on meta analysis, that "there is moderate certainty that interventions to promote and support breastfeeding have a moderate benefit." If these two relatively large trails had been included in the meta analysis, the estimated impacts might have been less or insignificant. In any case these two studies cast doubt on whether the benefit-to-cost ratios for public resources devoted to improving infant nutrition are likely to be sufficiently high for policies to promote breast feeding of the types examined in these studies.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, “Primary Care Interventions to Promote Breastfeeding: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement,” Annals of Internal Medicine Volume 149:8 (21 October 2008), 560-565.
No competing interests.
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests