Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 May 17:11:1347780.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1347780. eCollection 2024.

The epidemiology and associated factors of non-exclusive breastfeeding: a comparative cross-sectional study of livelihood-secure and insecure areas

Affiliations

The epidemiology and associated factors of non-exclusive breastfeeding: a comparative cross-sectional study of livelihood-secure and insecure areas

Ayenew Negesse et al. Front Nutr. .

Abstract

Introduction: Regardless of national commitment, non-exclusive breastfeeding (NEBF) is a public health problem that worsens over time. It can be associated with sociodemographic, economic, and environmental factors and may vary depending on livelihood security. Hence, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of NEBF and identify its associated factors by considering two areas with varied degrees of livelihood security.

Methods: This study represented a comparative cross-sectional survey of 1,060 under 6 months (u6m) infant-mother pairs. Both descriptive and analytic statistics were evaluated using STATA version 17 packages. A binary logistic regression was used to identify associated factors of NEBF. The odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to measure the significance of the association at a p-value of <0.05.

Results: The pooled magnitude of 51% of NEBF mothers (95% CI: 48.0, 54.0) was 53.1% (95% CI: 49.2, 57.0) and 48.1% (95% CI: 43.4, 52.8) in livelihood-secure and livelihood-insecure areas, respectively. The lack of recollecting the infant's birth date by mothers (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.15-4.40) had the highest odds of NEBF while household heads with tertiary education (AOR = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.01-0.54) and the poorest households (AOR = 0.43; 95%CI = 0.20-0.82) had the lowest odds of NEBF in livelihood-secure areas but not in livelihood-insecure areas. Moreover, mothers with male infants (AOR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.18-2.92) had high odds of NEBF in livelihood-insecure areas but not in livelihood-secure areas. Infants of 2 to less than 4-month-old (AOR = 8.5; 95% CI = 3.47-18.63) and 4 to less than 6-month-old (AOR = 22.2; 95% CI = 8.02-51.97) in livelihood-secure areas and infants of 2 to less than 4-month-old (AOR = 4.3; 95% CI = 1.29-11.67) and 4 to less than 6-month-old (AOR = 8.3; 95% CI = 2.44-22.39) in livelihood-insecure areas had high odds of NEBF.

Conclusion: Over half of the mothers were practicing NEBF, which represents a failure to meet national and international targets. Area vulnerability to livelihood security modifies factors of NEBF. Male infants in insecure areas, infants of unknown age in secure areas, and infants aged 2 months or older, regardless of setting, were more vulnerable to NEBF. However, households with the lowest wealth and higher household head educational status in livelihood-secure areas were less vulnerable to NEBF. Hence, livelihood-based interventions targeting mothers of 2 to less than 6-month-old infants, with emphasis on these factors, may help address and reduce NEBF.

Keywords: Deder; Ethiopia; Jimma; breastfeeding; livelihood security.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of factors associated with non-exclusive breastfeeding practice in relatively livelihood-secure areas and insecure areas (adapted from different studies (3, 5, 17, 19, 22, 45)).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic presentation of the sampling procedures to select the infant–mother pairs.

Similar articles

References

    1. WHO and UNICEF . Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices: definitions and measurement methods. (2021).
    1. World Health Organization . Infant and young child feeding. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/infant-and-young-child-... (2023).
    1. Bhattacharjee Natalia V, Schaeffer Lauren E, Hay Simon I. Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low-and middle-income countries, 2000–2018. Nat Hum Behav. (2021) 5:1027–45. doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zong X, Wu H, Zhao M, Magnussen CG, Xi B. Global prevalence of WHO infant feeding practices in 57 LMICs in 2010–2018 and time trends since 2000 for 44 LMICs. EClinicalMedicine. 37:100971. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100971 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Prentice AM. Breastfeeding in the modern world. Ann Nutr Metab. (2022) 78:29–38. doi: 10.1159/000524354, PMID: - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources