Infant feeding mode predicts the costs of healthcare services in one region of Canada: a data linkage pilot study

Taylor, Alicia and Chowdhury, Sharmeen and Gao, Zhiwei and Nguyen, Hai Van and Midodzi, W.K. and Gill, Nicole and Halfyard, Beth Banks and Newhook, Leigh A. and Twells, Laurie K. (2020) Infant feeding mode predicts the costs of healthcare services in one region of Canada: a data linkage pilot study. BMC Research Notes, 13. ISSN 1756-0500

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Abstract

Objective: The aim is to perform a pilot study evaluating the differences in healthcare service use and its associated costs by infant feeding mode in an infant’s first year of life. Data from a prospective cohort study and administrative databases were linked to examine healthcare use in healthy full term infants (N = 160). Exposure was categorized as exclusively breastfed, mixed fed and exclusively formula fed. Outcomes included hospitalizations, emergency room and physician visits. Descriptive statistics and generalized linear modelling were performed. Results: Overall $315,235 was spent on healthcare service use for the sample of infants during their first year of life. When compared to exclusive breastfeeding, mixed feeding and exclusive formula feeding were found to be significant predictors of total healthcare service use costs (p < 0.05), driven by costs of hospital admissions. Due to the human and economic burden associated with not breastfeeding, policies and programs that support and encourage breastfeeding should be priority.

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