The status of breast-feeding among mothers of children aged less than two years and implications for the occurrence of acute diarrhea, Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia
Creators: name: Tselassie, Biruk k.
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2002

description: To assess the status of breast-feeding among mothers of children aged less than two years and implications for the occurrence of acute diarrhea; a community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma town, Southwest Ethiopia. A multi-stage systematic sampling technique was applied. Experienced and qualified interviewers were employed and a pretested questionnaire was utilized for this purpose. A total of 412 mothers aged 15-49 with under-two years children were taken, after the calculation using the formula to estimate a single population proportions, to examine the status of breast-feeding and implications for the occurrence of acute diarrhea. It was found that out of the total study subjects, 407 (98.8%) of the children had ever breast-fed at any time after birth, and among children who have ever breast-fed, 339 (83.3%) have initiated breast-feeding early within 24 hours after birth. It was also found that out of the children aged four and above months (n=333), 207 (62.2%) of them were predominantly breast-fed, and from the same age group, 23 (6.91 %) have exclusively breast-fed for the first 4-6 months after birth. From the children who have exclusively breast-fed, 7 (30.4%) and from those predominantly breast-fed, 92 (44.4%) developed acute diarrhea. These differences were not statistically significant. However, out of the children who have initiated breast-feeding early after birth, 132 (38.9%) developed acute diarrhea as compared to those who have initiated late after 24 hours. Still the differences are not significantly associated with the occurrence of acute diarrhea (p&lt;0.107). The over all practices of breast-feeding was found to be influenced by the state of attending postnatal care, which showed significant association (p&lt;0.010). Mothers who have attended vi postnatal clinic are protected from having good practice of breast-feeding, as compared to the others [adjusted OR=0.50 (0.296,0.85)], which is a unique finding contradicts with the general truth. Maternal knowledge about the benefits of breast-feeding, on the other hand, were found to be influenced by variables such as maternal relations to the head of the household (p&lt;0.029), attending of formal school (p&lt;0.008), attending of antenatal care (p&lt;0.015) and attending of health education (p&lt;0.013). All these variables showed significant association with the outcome variable, which indicated mothers who have married, attended formal school, antenatal care and health education are in favor of having satisfactory knowledge about the benefits of breast-feeding. The occurrence of acute diarrhea was found to be influenced by some breast-feeding and health service related characteristics. For example, children from mothers who have unsatisfactory knowledge about exclusivity and duration of breast-feeding are protected from having the risk of acute diarrhea [(adjusted OR = 0.29 (0.12, 0.73)] as compared to those from mothers who have satisfactory knowledge. It is concluded that despite the rapid demographic shifts, maternal practices about breast-feeding is optimal except the practice of exclusivity. However, it can be concluded that mothers' interacting with certain social, cultural, and economic variables, are important factors influencing their child feeding decisions. Finally, it is recommended that even in this population with free access to preventive medical care, greater efforts should be made to educate mothers regarding risk factors for diarrheal disease identification and the benefits of maintaining breast-feeding during acute diarrhea episodes.