[Prevalence of breastfeeding in Brazilian capital cities]

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of breastfeeding and of exclusive breastfeeding in Brazilian capital cities, in the 5 major geographical areas of Brazil and in the whole country, at the ages of 30, 120 and 180 days, as agreed among specialists.

Methods: Restudy of data from the population inquiry about breastfeeding in 25 capital cities and in the Federal District during a mass immunization campaign, on October 16th, 1999, National Day of Vaccination, supervised by one of the authors. The random sample of this study refers to 10,778 children, according to the ages mentioned above. The point and interval estimates (95% CI) were given for the capital cities and then extrapolated to the major geographical areas and to Brazil. The regression analysis was used on the SAS statistical program.

Results: The estimated prevalence of breastfeeding in Brazil was 87.3% (CI 95%: 86.8-87.7) at the age of 30 days, 77.5% (77.1-78.0) at the age of 120 days and 68.6% (68.2-69.1) at the age of 180 days. The exclusive breastfeeding prevalence was 47.5% (46.4-48.5), 17.7% (17.2-18.3) and 7.7% (7.2-8.2) at the ages mentioned. At the age of 30 days, variation of the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding was wide, from 73.4% (Fortaleza) to 25.2% (Cuiabá). At the age of 180 days, the prevalence ranged from 16.9% in Belém to 2.8% in Cuiabá.

Conclusion: There was a moderate reduction of the prevalence of breastfeeding and a steep decline of the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding from birth to the age of 180 days. Important differences were noted in the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding among the capital cities surveyed.