Abstract
Accurate interpretation of reported breastfeeding rates is essential in understanding the true picture of a country's breastfeeding status. In Sri Lanka, where the reported exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate among infants aged from 0 to 5 months is 75%, accurate understanding of this rate is of the utmost importance. The danger of misinterpreting the data and assuming that Sri Lanka has achieved a high EBF rate is that health workers begin to believe that no further effort should be made in this area. This is very dangerous as the potential to further improve rates of EBF will not be addressed. We discuss the interpretation of survey data and various definitions used in the relevant literature. We strongly recommend that interpretation of EBF rates should be done only after careful evaluation of the definitions and survey methods used.
Highlights
Sri Lanka declared the achievement of a 50% improvement in rates of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 2007
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems of definitions, measurements and interpretation of EBF rates reported in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) as it relates to Sri Lanka
Sensitivity of the WHO definition to detect non-EBF infants was 42.9% while the negative predictive value was 60.1%. This suggests that the reported rate of EBF of 53.4% for 4-5 months infants using the 24-hour recall method might be an overestimation of the actual rate and the actual percentage of mothers practising EBF for the recommended six months period (EBF since birth to 6 months) in Sri Lanka is well below 50%
Summary
Sri Lanka declared the achievement of a 50% improvement in rates of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 2007. According to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2007, the rate of EBF among infants aged 0-5 months in Sri Lanka was 75% [1] This is the highest reported rate for the South Asian region [2] and is well beyond even the ten-year target for some countries in the region. Informal discussions with healthcare professionals in Sri Lanka indicate that the most common interpretation of this figure is "75.5% of babies in Sri Lanka are exclusively breastfed (from birth) until the completion of six months". This misinterpretation of the data is likely to be widespread in countries that use similar survey methods and reporting processes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems of definitions, measurements and interpretation of EBF rates reported in the DHS as it relates to Sri Lanka
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