Table 3.
The association of maternal experiences and knowledge with exclusive breastfeeding among breastfed infants under 6 months
| 0–1 months | 2–3 months | 4–5 months | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EBF/BF (%) | aOR (95%CI) | EBF/BF (%) | aOR (95%CI) | EBF/BF (%) | aOR (95%CI) | EBF/BF (%) | aOR (95%CI) | |
| (n = 1654) | (n = 1621) | (n = 1553) | (n = 4828) | |||||
| Ever breastfed a child a | ||||||||
| First birth | 289/819 (35.3) | 1.00 (reference) | 274/764 (35.9) | 1.00 (reference) | 161/712 (22.6) | 1.00 (reference) | 724/2295 (31.5) | 1.00 (reference) |
| Never or for < 6 months | 16/94 (17.0) | 0.46 (0.25, 0.83) | 26/111 (23.4) | 0.74 (0.44, 1.22) | 14/83 (16.9) | 0.73 (0.38, 1.39) | 56/288 (19.4) | 0.61 (0.44, 0.84) |
| For ≥6 months | 278/779 (35.7)* | 1.22 (0.94, 1.59) | 304/773 (39.3)* | 1.58 (1.22, 2.05) | 171/791 (21.6) | 1.00 (0.73, 1.37) | 753/2343 (32.1)* | 1.29 (1.10, 1.51) |
| Early initiation of breastfeeding b | ||||||||
| No | 481/1449 (33.2) | 1.00 (reference) | 501/1428 (35.1) | 1.00 (reference) | 293/1371 (21.4) | 1.00 (reference) | 1275/4248 (30.0) | 1.00 (reference) |
| Yes | 100/231 (43.3)* | 1.34 (0.98, 1.82) | 93/201 (46.3)* | 1.46 (1.06, 2.02) | 53/194 (27.3) | 1.27 (0.87, 1.84) | 246/626 (39.3)* | 1.36 (1.13, 1.64) |
| Knowing about exclusive breastfeeding | ||||||||
| No | 213/728 (29.3) | 1.00 (reference) | 209/689 (30.3) | 1.00 (reference) | 89/642 (13.9) | 1.00 (reference) | 511/2059 (24.8) | 1.00 (reference) |
| Yes | 374/973 (38.4)* | 1.50 (1.19, 1.88) | 397/966 (41.1)* | 1.55 (1.23, 1.94) | 262/951 (27.5)* | 2.12 (1.59, 2.83) | 1033/2890 (35.7)* | 1.61 (1.40, 1.84) |
| Score on the knowledge of benefits of breastfeeding a | ||||||||
| < 8 | 437/1297 (33.7) | 1.00 (reference) | 396/1229 (32.2) | 1.00 (reference) | 236/1198 (19.7) | 1.00 (reference) | 1069/3724 (28.7) | 1.00 (reference) |
| ≥ 8 | 148/398 (37.2)* | 1.09 (0.83, 1.44) | 208/422 (49.3)* | 1.72 (1.32, 2.23) | 113/388 (29.1)* | 1.53 (1.12, 2.10) | 469/1208 (38.8)* | 1.38 (1.18, 1.62) |
EBF indicates exclusively breastfed infants, BF indicates breastfed infants, and aORs indicates adjusted odds ratios
aORs were adjusted for residents, infant sex and age of months, and factors identified to be significantly associated with EBF in Table 2
* p value < 0.05 for univariate analysis
a Listwise deletion in logistic regression was used to handle missing data of these variables with < 1% missing data
b A category “unknown” was assigned to the missing value of these variables with ≥1% missing data; these cases were also included in the analysis but the results are not presented