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Prolonged exclusive breastfeeding, autumn birth and increased gestational age are associated with lower risk of fever in children with hand, foot, and mouth disease

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Abstract

Epidemics of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) have been emerging and reemerging in recent years. This study aims to investigate whether breastfeeding and other factors may affect the profile of fever and disease course in children with HFMD. Three hundred seventy-two preschool children with HFMD were included. The demographics, environmental factors, and delivery- and feeding-associated factors in the children were obtained and their effects on the profile of fever and disease course were analyzed. Of the 372 children, 139 (37.37%) had fever during the disease course. Gender, breastfeeding pattern, birth season and gestational age were significantly different between the children with and without fever (p = 0.034, p < 0.0001, p = 0.035 and p = 0.013, respectively). After multivariate-adjusted analysis, prolonged exclusive breastfeeding (p = 0.001, OR 0.401, 95% CI 0.229–0.704), autumn birth (p = 0.007, OR 0.409, 95% CI 0.214–0.784) and higher gestational age (p = 0.029, OR 0.089, 95% CI 0.010–0.781) were protective factors for the incidence of fever.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the families who participated in the investigation of this study. We thank Ms. Yanqin Qu and Dr. Ying Di for their fervent help in data collection.

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 Yanta West Road, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi Province, China

    Q. Zhu, N. Li, Q. Han, Z. Liu, Z. Li, G. Zhang, F. Li & N. Tian

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Hospital of Shangluo City, Shangluo, 726000, Shaanxi, China

    Y. Li

  3. Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA

    J. Qiu

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  1. Q. Zhu
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Correspondence to Z. Liu.

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Zhu, Q., Li, Y., Li, N. et al. Prolonged exclusive breastfeeding, autumn birth and increased gestational age are associated with lower risk of fever in children with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 31, 2197–2202 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1555-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1555-4

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