Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018
Authors: Natalia V. Bhattacharjee, Lauren E. Schaeffer, Simon I. Hay, Dan Lu, Megan F. Schipp, Alice Lazzar-Atwood, Katie M. Donkers, Gdiom Gebreheat Abady, Foad Abd-Allah, Ahmed Abdelalim, Zeleke Hailemariam Abebo, Ayenew Negesse Abejie, Akine Eshete Abosetugn, Lucas Guimarães Abreu, Michael R. M. Abrigo, Eman Abu-Gharbieh, Abdelrahman I. Abushouk, Aishatu L. Adamu, Isaac Akinkunmi Adedeji, Adeyinka Emmanuel Adegbosin, Victor Adekanmbi, Olatunji O. Adetokunboh, Marcela Agudelo-Botero, Budi Aji, Oluwaseun Oladapo Akinyemi, Alehegn Aderaw Alamneh, Fahad Mashhour Alanezi, Turki M. Alanzi, James Albright, Jacqueline Elizabeth Alcalde-Rabanal, Biresaw Wassihun Alemu, Robert Kaba Alhassan, Beriwan Abdulqadir Ali, Saqib Ali, Cyrus Alinia, Vahid Alipour, Arianna Maever L. Amit, Dickson A. Amugsi, Etsay Woldu Anbesu, Robert Ancuceanu, Mina Anjomshoa, Fereshteh Ansari, Carl Abelardo T. Antonio, Davood Anvari, Jalal Arabloo, Amit Arora, Kurnia Dwi Artanti, Mulusew A. Asemahagn, Wondwossen Niguse Asmare, Maha Moh’d Wahbi Atout, Marcel Ausloos, Nefsu Awoke, Beatriz Paulina Ayala Quintanilla, Martin Amogre Ayanore, Yared Asmare Aynalem, Muluken Altaye Ayza, Zelalem Nigussie Azene, B. B. Darshan, Ashish D. Badiye, Atif Amin Baig, Shankar M. Bakkannavar, Maciej Banach, Palash Chandra Banik, Till Winfried Bärnighausen, Huda Basaleem, Mohsen Bayati, Bayisa Abdissa Baye, Neeraj Bedi, Sefealem Assefa Belay, Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula, Dinesh Bhandari, Nikha Bhardwaj, Pankaj Bhardwaj, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Ali Bijani, Tsegaye Adane Birhan, Binyam Minuye Birihane, Zebenay Workneh Bitew, Somayeh Bohlouli, Mahdi Bohluli, Hunduma Amensisa Bojia, Archith Boloor, Oliver J. Brady, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Andre R. Brunoni, Shyam S. Budhathoki, Sharath Burugina Nagaraja, Zahid A. Butt, Rosario Cárdenas, Joao Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, Franz Castro, Achille Cernigliaro, Jaykaran Charan, Pranab Chatterjee, Souranshu Chatterjee, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Sarika Chaturvedi, Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury, Dinh-Toi Chu, Michael L. Collison, Aubrey J. Cook, Michael A. Cork, Rosa A. S. Couto, Baye Dagnew, Haijiang Dai, Lalit Dandona, Rakhi Dandona, Parnaz Daneshpajouhnejad, Aso Mohammad Darwesh, Amira Hamed Darwish, Ahmad Daryani, Jai K. Das, Rajat Das Gupta, Claudio Alberto Dávila-Cervantes, Adrian Charles Davis, Nicole Davis Weaver, Edgar Denova-Gutiérrez, Kebede Deribe, Assefa Desalew, Aniruddha Deshpande, Awrajaw Dessie, Keshab Deuba, Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne, Meghnath Dhimal, Govinda Prasad Dhungana, Daniel Diaz, Alireza Didarloo, Isaac Oluwafemi Dipeolu, Linh Phuong Doan, Bereket Duko, Andre Rodrigues Duraes, Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Lucas Earl, Maysaa El Sayed Zaki, Maha El Tantawi, Teshome Bekele Elema, Hala Rashad Elhabashy, Shaimaa I. El-Jaafary, Pawan Sirwan Faris, Andre Faro, Farshad Farzadfar, Valery L. Feigin, Berhanu Elfu Feleke, Tomas Y. Ferede, Florian Fischer, Nataliya A. Foigt, Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan, Richard Charles Franklin, Mohamed M. Gad, Shilpa Gaidhane, William M. Gardner, Biniyam Sahiledengle Geberemariyam, Birhan Gebresillassie Gebregiorgis, Ketema Bizuwork Gebremedhin, Berhe Gebremichael, Fariborz Ghaffarpasand, Syed Amir Gilani, Themba G. Ginindza, Mustefa Glagn, Mahaveer Golechha, Kebebe Bekele Gonfa, Bárbara Niegia Garcia Goulart, Nachiket Gudi, Davide Guido, Rashid Abdi Guled, Yuming Guo, Samer Hamidi, Demelash Woldeyohannes Handiso, Ahmed I. Hasaballah, Amr Hassan, Khezar Hayat, Mohamed I. Hegazy, Behnam Heidari, Nathaniel J. Henry, Claudiu Herteliu, Hagos Degefa de Hidru, Hung Chak Ho, Chi Linh Hoang, Ramesh Holla, Julia Hon, Mostafa Hosseini, Mehdi Hosseinzadeh, Mowafa Househ, Mohamed Hsairi, Guoqing Hu, Tanvir M. Huda, Bing-Fang Hwang, Segun Emmanuel Ibitoye, Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, Irena M. Ilic, Milena D. Ilic, Leeberk Raja Inbaraj, Usman Iqbal, Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani, M. Mofizul Islam, Chidozie C. D. Iwu, Chinwe Juliana Iwu, Animesh Jain, Manthan Dilipkumar Janodia, Tahereh Javaheri, Yetunde O. John-Akinola, Kimberly B. Johnson, Farahnaz Joukar, Jacek Jerzy Jozwiak, Ali Kabir, Leila R. Kalankesh, Rohollah Kalhor, Ashwin Kamath, Naser Kamyari, Other Tanuj Kanchan, Neeti Kapoor, Behzad Karami Matin, Salah Eddin Karimi, Habtamu Kebebe Kasaye, Getinet Kassahun, Nicholas J. Kassebaum, Gbenga A. Kayode, Ali Kazemi Karyani, Peter Njenga Keiyoro, Bayew Kelkay, Nauman Khalid, Md. Nuruzzaman Khan, Khaled Khatab, Amir M. Khater, Mona M. Khater, Mahalaqua Nazli Khatib, Yun Jin Kim, Ruth W. Kimokoti, Damaris K. Kinyoki, Adnan Kisa, Sezer Kisa, Soewarta Kosen, Kewal Krishan, Vaman Kulkarni, G. Anil Kumar, Manasi Kumar, Nithin Kumar, Pushpendra Kumar, Om P. Kurmi, Dian Kusuma, Carlo La Vecchia, Sheetal D. Lad, Faris Hasan Lami, Iván Landires, Van Charles Lansingh, Savita Lasrado, Paul H. Lee, Kate E. LeGrand, Ian D. Letourneau, Sonia Lewycka, Bingyu Li, Ming-Chieh Li, Shanshan Li, Xuefeng Liu, Rakesh Lodha, Jaifred Christian F. Lopez, Celia Louie, Daiane Borges Machado, Venkatesh Maled, Shokofeh Maleki, Deborah Carvalho Malta, Abdullah A. Mamun, Navid Manafi, Mohammad Ali Mansournia, Chabila Christopher Mapoma, Laurie B. Marczak, Francisco Rogerlândio Martins-Melo, Man Mohan Mehndiratta, Fabiola Mejia-Rodriguez, Tefera Chane Mekonnen, Walter Mendoza, Ritesh G. Menezes, Endalkachew Worku Mengesha, Abera M. Mersha, Ted R. Miller, G. K. Mini, Erkin M. Mirrakhimov, Sanjeev Misra, Masoud Moghadaszadeh, Dara K. Mohammad, Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani, Jemal Abdu Mohammed, Shafiu Mohammed, Ali H. Mokdad, Pablo A. Montero-Zamora, Masoud Moradi, Rahmatollah Moradzadeh, Paula Moraga, Jonathan F. Mosser, Seyyed Meysam Mousavi, Amin Mousavi Khaneghah, Sandra B. Munro, Moses K. Muriithi, Ghulam Mustafa, Saravanan Muthupandian, Ahamarshan Jayaraman Nagarajan, Gurudatta Naik, Mukhammad David Naimzada, Vinay Nangia, Bruno Ramos Nascimento, Vinod C. Nayak, Rawlance Ndejjo, Duduzile Edith Ndwandwe, Ionut Negoi, Georges Nguefack-Tsague, Josephine W. Ngunjiri, Cuong Tat Nguyen, Diep Ngoc Nguyen, Huong Lan Thi Nguyen, Samuel Negash Nigussie, Tadesse T. N. Nigussie, Rajan Nikbakhsh, Chukwudi A. Nnaji, Virginia Nunez-Samudio, Bogdan Oancea, Onome Bright Oghenetega, Andrew T. Olagunju, Bolajoko Olubukunola Olusanya, Jacob Olusegun Olusanya, Muktar Omer Omer, Obinna E. Onwujekwe, Doris V. Ortega-Altamirano, Aaron E. Osgood-Zimmerman, Nikita Otstavnov, Stanislav S. Otstavnov, Mayowa O. Owolabi, P. A. Mahesh, Jagadish Rao Padubidri, Adrian Pana, Anamika Pandey, Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal, Helena Ullyartha Pangaribuan, Shradha S. Parsekar, Deepak Kumar Pasupula, Urvish K. Patel, Ashish Pathak, Mona Pathak, Sanjay M. Pattanshetty, George C. Patton, Kebreab Paulos, Veincent Christian Filipino Pepito, Brandon V. Pickering, Marina Pinheiro, Ellen G. Piwoz, Khem Narayan Pokhrel, Hadi Pourjafar, Sergio I. Prada, Dimas Ria Angga Pribadi, Zahiruddin Quazi Syed, Mohammad Rabiee, Navid Rabiee, Fakher Rahim, Shadi Rahimzadeh, Azizur Rahman, Mohammad Hifz Ur Rahman, Amir Masoud Rahmani, Rajesh Kumar Rai, Chhabi Lal Ranabhat, Sowmya J. Rao, Prateek Rastogi, Priya Rathi, David Laith Rawaf, Salman Rawaf, Reza Rawassizadeh, Rahul Rawat, Ramu Rawat, Lemma Demissie Regassa, Maria Albertina Santiago Rego, Robert C. Reiner, Bhageerathy Reshmi, Aziz Rezapour, Ana Isabel Ribeiro, Jennifer Rickard, Leonardo Roever, Susan Fred Rumisha, Godfrey M. Rwegerera, Rajesh Sagar, S. Mohammad Sajadi, Marwa Rashad Salem, Abdallah M. Samy, Milena M. Santric-Milicevic, Sivan Yegnanarayana Iyer Saraswathy, Abdur Razzaque Sarker, Benn Sartorius, Brijesh Sathian, Deepak Saxena, Alyssa N. Sbarra, Debarka Sengupta, Subramanian Senthilkumaran, Feng Sha, Omid Shafaat, Amira A. Shaheen, Masood Ali Shaikh, Ali S. Shalash, Mohammed Shannawaz, Aziz Sheikh, B. Suresh Kumar Shetty, Ranjitha S. Shetty, Kenji Shibuya, Wondimeneh Shibabaw Shiferaw, Jae Il Shin, Diego Augusto Santos Silva, Narinder Pal Singh, Pushpendra Singh, Surya Singh, Yitagesu Sintayehu, Valentin Yurievich Skryabin, Anna Aleksandrovna Skryabina, Amin Soheili, Shahin Soltani, Muluken Bekele Sorrie, Emma Elizabeth Spurlock, Krista M. Steuben, Agus Sudaryanto, Mu’awiyyah Babale Sufiyan, Scott J. Swartz, Eyayou Girma Tadesse, Animut Tagele Tamiru, Leili Tapak, Md. Ismail Tareque, Ingan Ukur Tarigan, Getayeneh Antehunegn Tesema, Fisaha Haile Tesfay, Abinet Teshome, Zemenu Tadesse Tessema, Kavumpurathu Raman Thankappan, Rekha Thapar, Nihal Thomas, Roman Topor-Madry, Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Eugenio Traini, Bach Xuan Tran, Phuong N. Truong, Berhan Tsegaye B. T. Tsegaye, Irfan Ullah, Chukwuma David Umeokonkwo, Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan, Era Upadhyay, Benjamin S. Chudi Uzochukwu, John David VanderHeide, Francesco S. Violante, Bay Vo, Yohannes Dibaba Wado, Yasir Waheed, Richard G. Wamai, Fang Wang, Yafeng Wang, Yuan-Pang Wang, Nuwan Darshana Wickramasinghe, Kirsten E. Wiens, Charles Shey Wiysonge, Lauren Woyczynski, Ai-Min Wu, Chenkai Wu, Tomohide Yamada, Sanni Yaya, Alex Yeshaneh, Yigizie Yeshaw, Yordanos Gizachew Yeshitila, Mekdes Tigistu Yilma, Paul Yip, Naohiro Yonemoto, Tewodros Yosef, Mustafa Z. Younis, Abdilahi Yousuf Yousuf, Chuanhua Yu, Yong Yu, Deniz Yuce, Shamsa Zafar, Syed Saoud Zaidi, Leila Zaki, Josefina Zakzuk, Maryam Zamanian, Heather J. Zar, Mikhail Sergeevich Zastrozhin, Anasthasia Zastrozhina, Desalege Amare Zelellw, Yunquan Zhang, Zhi-Jiang Zhang, Xiu-Ju George Zhao, Sanjay Zodpey, Yves Miel H. Zuniga, Simon I. Hay
Journal: Nature Human Behaviour (2021)

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.