London (PTI): Breast-feeding is not only good for children but it helps mothers to escape rheumatoid arthritis, researchers have shown.

Swedish experts writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases have also noted that women have more than a twofold higher incidence of rheumatoid arthritis than men.

"This difference may partly be explained by hormonal factors," they wrote.

Scientists compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis with 544 of a similar age who were free from the disease. They found that those who breast-fed for 13 months or more were 54 per cent less likely to develop the condition than women who had not.

Even women who breast-fed for between one and 12 months were 26 per cent less likely to suffer the disease.

About 400,000 people in Britain have rheumatoid arthritis.

Swedish experts noted that women have more than a two-fold higher incidence of rheumatoid arthritis than men.

The study was published on the day that singer Charlotte Church backed a Welsh Assembly campaign to encourage young mothers to breast-feed.

Church, 21, who breast-fed her eight-month-old daughter Ruby for six months, said she enjoyed bonding with her baby.

"Everybody knows mother's milk is best," she was quoted in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.