Table 4.

Newborn sucking ability score comparison at different time points by the GEE approach.

Parameters	GEE1 (Main Effect)			GEE2 (Interaction)
	ꞵ	SE	p Value	ꞵ	SE	p Value
Group effect (Intervention vs. control)	1.18	0.28	<0.001	0.65	0.22	0.003
After skin contact vs. after 5 min of SSC	3.28	0.22	<0.001	2.04	0.29	<0.001
24 h after birth vs. after 5 min of SSC	6.93	0.22	<0.001	7.17	0.3	<0.001
Before discharge vs. after 5 min of SSC	8.23	0.25	<0.001	8.25	0.35	<0.001
Group*time
After skin contact vs. after 5 min of SSC				2.48	0.38	<0.001
24 h after birth vs. after 5 min of SSC				−0.48	0.45	0.29
Before discharge vs. after 5 min of SSC				0.08	0.48	0.87
Control variable
Breastfeeding self-efficacy scale scores				0.18	0.17	0.003

Abbreviations: GEE, generalized estimating equation; GEE1: main effect of group and time; GEE2: interaction of group and time; SE: standard error.