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Paediatrics
Protocol
Relationship between breast feeding and motor development in children: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
  1. Monserrat Hernández Luengo1,
  2. Celia Álvarez-Bueno1,2,
  3. Diana P Pozuelo-Carrascosa1,
  4. Carlos Berlanga-Macías1,
  5. Vicente Martínez-Vizcaíno1,3,
  6. Blanca Notario-Pacheco1,4
  1. 1 Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Center, Cuenca, Spain
  2. 2 Universidad Politécnica y Artística del Paraguay, Asunción, Paraguay
  3. 3 Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Talca, Chile
  4. 4 Faculty of Nursing, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain
  1. Correspondence to Celia Álvarez-Bueno; Celia.Alvarezbueno{at}uclm.es

Abstract

Introduction The recommendations of most health organisations encourage mothers to keep exclusive breast feeding during the first 6 months and combining breast feeding with complementary feeding at least during the first and second years, due to the numerous immunologic, cognitive developmental and motor skill benefits that breast feeding confers. Although the influence of breast feeding on motor development during childhood has been studied, the findings are inconsistent, and some studies have even reported no effect. This manuscript presents a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis, with the aim of reviewing the relationship between breast feeding and motor skill development in children in terms of duration, exclusivity or non-exclusivity of breast feeding.

Methods and analysis The search will be conducted using Medline (via PubMed), EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library from inception to December 2019. Observational studies (cross-sectional and follow-up studies) written in English or Spanish that investigate the association between breast feeding and motor development in children will be included. This systematic review and meta-analysis protocol follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols. The Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies and The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for longitudinal studies will be used to assess the quality of included studies. The effect of breast feeding on motor skill development will be calculated as the primary outcome. Subgroup analyses will be carried out based on the characteristics of motor skill development and the population included.

Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required because the data used will be obtained from published studies, and there will be no concerns about privacy. The findings from this study will be relevant information regarding the association of breast feeding with motor development in children and could be used encourage to improve breastfeeding rates. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

PROSPERO registration number CRD42018093706.

  • breastfeeding
  • motor development
  • motor skills
  • children

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029063

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors BN-P and MH-L designed the study and were the main coordinators of the study. BN-P was the principal investigator and guarantor. DPP-C, CA-B, CB-M, VM-V and BN-P conducted the study. MH-L, DPP-C and VM-V gave statistical and epidemiological support. MH-L wrote the article with the support of CB-M, VM-V and BN-P. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

    • Funding This study has been funded by FEDER funds.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request.