It's not a surprise these numbers don't make sense to you. There's a missing vital piece of information -
the breastfeeding rate among the 70,148 infants.

If 70,000 of them were breastfed and 148 not, then obviously PS is much more common in bottle-fed babies.

If only 100 were breastfed, then that's a whole different story.

In this case, where 34 breastfed and 29 bottle-fed babies had PS, then to reach the conclusion that bottle-fed babies are more at risk, the breastfeeding rate of the whole sample needs to be over 34/65 * 100, or over 52%. (If the bf rate is 52%, there's no difference in risk for bf vs. bottle-fed.)

This is all assuming bottle-fed means formula-fed, as well.

Marcia in MN, who's taking Biostatistics at the moment :)



> Date:    Fri, 7 Sep 2012 23:44:54 -0400
> From:    "K. Jean Cotterman" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Pyloric Stenosis

> <Of the 70,148 singleton infants, 65 infants required surgery for PS, 29 of whom were 
> bottle-fed before PS diagnosis.>

> I just don't get it, no doubt due to my inability to make sense of the rest of the 
> statistics.

> Of the 65 said to require surgery for PS, if you subtract the 29 bottle fed babies seems 
> to = 36 of them then who were apparently breastfed to the satisfactoy definition of the 
> researchers, who still, nevertheless, required PS surgery. 

> Considering the large group of children they began with, I can't see how then that this 
> adds up to the conclusion then that bottle feeding seems to be statistically a more 
> remarkable contributor to pyloric stenosis?? Or breastfeeding so much less of a 
> contributor?

> Is this someone's "spin" of the week to get a controversy going in the news 
> over breastfeeding? 

> Better I focus my cogitation on other BF matters!

> K. Jean Cotterman RNC-E, IBCLC
> WIC Volunteer LC      Dayton OH

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