Prevalence and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practices among infants in Hossana town, Southern Ethiopia: a community based cross-sectional study

3^rd International Conference on Nursing & Midwifery

May 23-24, 2018 | New York, USA

Alemu Earsido, Wondwosen Abebe and Nebiyu Dereje

Wachemo University, Ethiopia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Introduction: Different researches provide convincing evidence for the effect of human milk in decreasing the risk of infant mortality and morbidity from acute and chronic diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for breastfeeding as the best source of food for optimal infant growth and development. They recommend that infants should be exclusively breastfed, receiving no other foods or liquids besides breast milk, until six months of age. Objective: To assess prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding practices and predictors among infants in Hossana Town, Southern Ethiopia, 2015 Method & Materials: A community based cross sectional study was conducted from January to February 2015, in Hossana town, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select 720 respondents. All the questionnaires were entered, edited, coded and cleaned into Epi-info version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 20 soft ware packages for analysis. The degree of association between independent and dependent variables were assessed using odds ratio, 95% confidence interval and p-value <0.05 to be considered as significant. Result: A total sample of 707 mothers having infants aged 0�12 months was interviewed which had the response rate of 98%. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in the study area was 74%. Age group of the respondents 15-24 [AOR=3.2, 95% CI: 1.6, 6], illiterate educational level of the respondents� husband [AOR=0.34, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.95], age of the infants