Logistic Regression Analysis of Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice among Mothers in Amanuel Town, Northwest, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Breast milk is the optimal food for infants. A mother’s breast milk has the perfect combination of nutrients needed for her infant’s growth and development. That is breast milk is perfect, natural and protective food for infants. In Ethiopia suboptimal breastfeeding practices are the major contributor to an estimated 70,000 infant deaths per year which is 24% of the total infant death annually which can be significantly prevented by nutrition interventions such as exclusive breastfeeding. Thus it was a basic need to conduct research survey to identify significant factors on exclusive breastfeeding. The objective of the study was to assess the exclusive breastfeeding practice and associated factors among Mothers in Amanuel Town, Northwest, Ethiopia, 2017. Methods: community based cross sectional study was conducted on 254 mothers who have child up to one year in Amanuel Town, Ethiopia, 2017. The whole mothers who had child up to one year in the town were including in the study and data was collected by structured administered questionnaire. The collected and edited data was coded and entered to SPSS software for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics’ of the study participants and the prevalence of exclusive breast feeding. Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis were used to identify the relationship between dependent variable and the independent variable. Results: From total participants, majority (72.4%) of mothers were give breast milk for the infant immediately within one hour of birth. Most mothers (79.9%) feed colostrum (first milk) to the newborn and the prevalence exclusive breast feeding within six months was 46.5%. From bivariate logistic regression analysis, variables which were associated with exclusive breast feeding (P<0.25) were; religion, level of education of mother, occupation of mother, marital status, health status of mother and infant, antenatal care, breast feeding counseling during ANC, place of delivery, postnatal care, Colostrum feeding and number of children alive. From multivariable analysis, mother occupation, mother health status, colostrum feeding, infant health status, breastfeeding counseling and place of delivery were significant variables for EBF (P≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Having antenatal care counseling about breastfeeding, health status of mother, infant health status, mother occupation, place of delivery and colostrum feeding were the determinant factors for EBF practice. Mothers with healthy infant, got breastfeeding counseling during pregnancy and fed colostrum were more likely to practice EBF than the other.