Table 3.
Weaning information sources among a self-selected sample of black and minority ethnic parents residing in London, UK, June 2010–April 2011
| Total population (n 316) | Most influential advice (%) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Used as a source (%) | Most influential advice (%) | Weeks weaned* | Black African | Black Caribbean | Black mixed-race | South Asian | ||||
| Mean | sd | (n 95) | (n 49) | (n 68) | (n 115) | P† | P‡ | |||
| Health visitor | 84 | 31 | 24·0 | 4·1 | 31 | 28 | 34 | 31 | 0·711 | 0·258 |
| GP/other medical | 51 | 2 | 25·1 | 4·4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Leaflets | 55 | 2 | 18·2 | 8·8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Books | 53 | 2 | 23·1 | 6·1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Internet | 63 | 4 | 23·0 | 3·4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 | ||
| Mother/grandmother | 84 | 37 | 21·5 | 6·5 | 33 | 41 | 49 | 32 | ||
| Friends | 81 | 2 | 19·4 | 4·0 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Previous experience | 94§ | 16 (31§) | 22·1 | 4·6 | 19 | 17 | 6 | 20 | ||
GP, general practitioner or other medical advice.
χ 2 analysis was used to examine differences in the most influential source of advice between ethnic groups. Categories were grouped into medical advice (GP/other medical; health visitor), informal advice (friends and family, previous experience) and written word (books, leaflets, Internet) to allow valid χ 2 analysis to be carried out.
*Mean weeks weaned by most influential source of advice.
†P value for comparison between South Asian, Black Caribbean, Black African and Black mixed-race results.
‡P value for comparison between all Blacks combined and South Asians.
§Data for previous experience are from those with more than one child, rather than total sample. Previous experience was the most influential source of information for 31 % when the respondent had more than one child (n 165).