The Association Between Refractive Errors and Breastfeeding in Pakistani Children: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the association between breastfeeding and the occurrence of refractive errors (REs) among children. MethodologyThis was a (retrospective) case-control study carried out between December 1, 2021, and March 30, 2022, at the Basheeran Umar Eye Hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayhan Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot in Kashmir, Pakistan. A total of 200 participants between the ages of five and 16 years (106 cases with REs and 94 controls without REs) were included in this study. After obtaining informed consent from the parent accompanying the participant, the parent was further interviewed to extract information regarding biodata, breastfeeding, and other parameters including parental myopia, the number of hours spent on outdoor activities, on gadgets, and doing near work; this data was entered into a questionnaire. The participant's visual acuity was then checked using the Snellen chart. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) and statistical tests such as multivariate regression analysis and chi-square were carried out and odds ratios (OR) were calculated. ConclusionThis study demonstrates that breastfeeding plays a protective role in the prevention of REs. The type of breastfeeding also had a significant effect on the development of REs, i.e., children exclusively breastfed (regardless of the duration of breastfeeding) were less likely to develop errors of refraction in the future.

Catalytic reduction of 4‐nitrophenol by means of nanostructured polymeric Schiff base complexes

“…The reduction reaction was completed in 24 min under these conditions in the presence of NaBH 4 without any catalyst. The peak intensity of 400 nm decreased, and simultaneously, a new peak appeared at 300 nm because of 4‐AP formation . By adding the nanocatalysts (2 mg), the reaction time reduced by5–14 min for different catalysts (Figure , Table , Scheme ).…”