Table 1.

Socioeconomic and obstetric characteristics of the study population by group (Mean, Standard Deviation or Percent)

Variable		Jews (N = 202)	Arabs (N = 203)			χ2	p
		M	SD	M	SD
	Age	29.5	4.25	27.5	4.81		< 0.001
	Years of marriage	4.83	3.81	5.45	4.22		0.12
Socioeconomic Characteristics
		N	%	N	%
Education	High School	76	37.4	93	46.0	0.12	0.057
	Professional education	33	16.2	39	19.3
	Academic education	94	46.3	70	34.6
Work outside the home	Yes	133	65.5	74	36.6	0.29	< 0.001
	No	69	34	127	62.9
Income	Above average	46	22.7	36	17.8	0.13	0.04
	Equal to average	53	26.1	39	19.3
	Below average	99	48.8	125	61.9
Place of residence	Town	150	73.9	139	68.8	0.09	0.26
	Village	53	26.1	63	31.2
Obstetric Characteristics
Pregnancy	Spontaneous	190	93.6	192	95.0	0.03	0.53
	Fertility treatment	13	6.4	10	5.0
Type of Delivery	Normal vaginal delivery	173	85.6	160	79.2	0.01	0.08
	Assisted delivery	29	14.4	42	20.8
Breastfeeding one month after birth	Yesa	157	77.3	184	91.1	0.22	< 0.0001
	No	46	22.7	18	8.9
Number of children	1	51	25.1	50	24.8		0.41
	2	81	39.9	67	33.7
	3	44	21.7	45	21.8
	4	16	7.9	28	13.9
	5 and above	11	5.4	9	4.5

Note. The statistical tests included T and chi² tests to assess the difference between Jewish and Arab women

^aIndicates full or partial breastfeeding one month after child birth