Feeding with breastmilk may improve heart outcomes for premature babies, according to researchers.
The link had not been investigated previously, so Dr Adam Lewandowski and his team at Oxford University, UK, examined the evidence.
They explain in Pediatrics that premature birth can lead to long-term changes in heart development and function.
"Understanding whether preterm postnatal life is a tractable period of cardiovascular development that can be positively altered by nutrition is relevant to long-term outcomes," they write.
The researchers analysed information on 926 premature infants who were originally part of a randomised controlled trial of different milk-feeding regimens between 1982 and 1985. In this trial they received either donated breast milk or nutrient-enriched formula milk.
Of the original group, now in their early- to mid-twenties, 102 were available for follow-up. MRI scans on these individuals were compared with scans of 102 people born at full term.
This showed that the premature individuals fed exclusively on human milk as infants had significantly increased "left and right ventricular end-diastolic volume index and stroke volume index" than those exclusively fed formula milk as infants. Among those fed a mixture of breastmilk and formula, the more breastmilk consumed in the diet as babies the better their heart structure and function.
"This study provides the first evidence of a beneficial association between breast milk and cardiac morphology and function in adult life in those born preterm and supports promotion of human milk for the care of preterm infants to reduce long-term cardiovascular risk."
Lewandowski, A. J. et al. Breast milk consumption in preterm neonates and cardiac shape in adulthood. Pediatrics 14 June 2016 doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-0050
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