Attitudes towards breastfeeding - the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale in Chinese mothers living in China and Australia

Abstract

This study aimed to translate and validate a Chinese (simplified) version of the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) and compare the infant feeding attitudes of Chinese mothers living in Perth Australia and in Chengdu P.R. China. A survey was undertaken on 200 Chinese mothers living in Perth and 1620 mothers living in Chengdu. The simplified Chinese version of IIFAS had a moderate level of internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.69 for mothers in Australia and 0.55 for mothers in China. The mean IIFAS scores in both country groups lay in the range of 'neutral breastfeeding attitudes'. Higher IIFAS scores were significantly associated with the likelihood of both breastfeeding initiation (OR: 3.85; CI: 2.49-5.96; p<0.001) and longer (>=8 months) breastfeeding duration (OR: 2.52; CI: 1.87-3.40; p<0.001). Chinese mothers in Perth (mean IIFAS score=60.0±6.3) tended to have more positive attitudes towards breastfeeding than mothers in Chengdu (mean IIFAS score=57.7±5.1, p<0.001), and had a longer duration of 'any breastfeeding' (10.0±6.2 months in Perth compared to 7.4±4.3 months in Chengdu, p<0.001). In conclusion, higher scores on the IIFAS in simplified Chinese are associated with breastfeeding initiation and duration in Chinese populations.