Is there a relationship between breastfeeding status and life style changes, eating behaviors, attitudes, and orthorexia nervosa tendencies of mothers? A web‐based study

Abstract

It was aimed to compare the breastfeeding status and healthy life style changes, eating behaviors, attitudes, and orthorectic tendencies of mothers. All volunteered mothers who have a child between the ages of 0 and 2 were included in this cross-sectional study. Five hundred fourteen individuals were included. Five parted questionnaire and "ORTO-11" test and "Eating Attitude Test" were used. A statistically significant relationship was found between breastfeeding status and working status and professions of mothers. Mothers who did not breastfeed, skipped main meal more frequently, and smoking and occasional alcohol consumption was higher. The mean score of the participants on the ORTO-11 scale was 25.09±4.80, EAT-40 scale mean score was 18.80±10.42. High-risk in eating attitudes was found in 12.0% of all participants. It was observed that mothers who did not breastfeed were mostly in high-risk group in terms of eating attitude. Mothers who did not breastfeed were mostly in high-risk group in terms of eating attitude compared with breastfeeding mothers. It is of great importance that healthcare professionals organize trainings for increasing the general level of knowledge of mothers and provide healthy living and breastfeeding counseling.