Abstract

Objective: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a risk factor for a broad range of negative outcomes, and therefore places a high financial burden on the healthcare system, families and society. Breastfeeding has been found to be a reducing factor of ADHD. The intended duration of breastfeeding has been found to be a strong predictor. Early return to work after birth has been associated with a shorter duration of breastfeeding and poor maternal-infant bonding. Our objective is to find out if maternal post-delivery leave policies in various countries has significant impact on breastfeeding duration and the incidence of ADHD.

Methods: A systematic search of the medical literature using medline, pubmed, Cochrane review, google scholar and embase in which the largest available study for each country in each category (ADHD, breastfeeding and maternal leave) between 1989 to 2015 was selected.

 Spearman Ranks correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between ADHD prevalence, length of paid maternity leave, initiation of breastfeeding, and breastfeeding for 6 six months or more.

Results: A negative correlation between duration of paid leave and ADHD prevalence (Rs -0.54, p < 0.05) and between initiation of breastfeeding and ADHD prevalence (Rs -0.57, p < 0.05). There was also a positive correlation between duration of paid leave and breastfeeding-ever (Rs = 0.4, p < 0.05), i.e. the longer the paid leave duration, the longer the duration of proper breastfeeding.

Conclusion: Paid maternity leave has a very strong negative association with ADHD. Therefore, providing mothers with sufficient paid maternity leave leads to proper breastfeeding within a long period of time and thus reducing the incidence of ADHD.

Keywords: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Breastfeeding; Maternity Leave

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Citation

Citation: Lucas Esuh Esong., et al. “Is Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Influenced by Breastfeeding and/or Duration of Maternity Leave?”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 3.6 (2020): 05-10.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Lucas Esuh Esong., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.