Table 4.
Geometric mean and 95% confidence interval for maternal serum perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) concentrations by reason for terminating breastfeeding
| Reported Reason | n a | PFOA ng/mL GM (95% CI)b |
|---|---|---|
| Made insufficient milk | 49 | 5.9 (4.9, 7.1) |
| Sore nipples or breasts | 9 | 5.4 (2.4, 12.5) |
| Too tired | 7 | 5.5 (2.0, 15.6) |
| Returned to work or school | 21 | 5.5 (4.4, 7.0) |
| Emotional difficulty | 10 | 8.3 (5.3, 13.2) |
| Not enough support from family/doctors | 5 | 9.2 (3.4, 24.9) |
| Took medicine incompatible with breastfeeding | 10 | 7.5 (5.1, 11.0) |
| Infant did not feed well | 22 | 6.5 (4.9, 8.6) |
| Infant not gaining weight or not tolerating breast milk | 13 | 4.6 (2.3, 9.3) |
| Other | 25 | 6.0 (4.7, 7.6) |
| ANOVA p-value c | 0.73 |
a
Women that reported ending breastfeeding earlier than they intended (n=102) were given the opportunity to report up to five reasons for stopping breastfeeding, thus the presented reasons for stopping are not mutually exclusive
b
The geometric mean of serum PFOA for all women in the analytic sample was 5.5 ng/mL (n=336)
c
p-value from Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of log(2)-transformed PFOA on reason for ending breastfeeding