Determinants of duration of breastfeeding amongst women in Manipur

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of present study is to investigate the differentials and determinants of duration breastfeeding (BF) according to various socio-economic and demographic factors. Methods: A cross sectional study of 1225 ever-married women of reproductive age with at least one live birth was conducted in four valley districts of Manipur under cluster sampling scheme. Survival analysis technique has been adopted through SPSS vs 16. Results: The median duration of BF is found to be 20.37 months. Among the six explanatory variables of interest, only two factors - place of residence (relative risk (RR) =1.35) and employment status RR = 1.88) have highly significant effect (P<0.01) on BF and only two factors educational level (RR=1.02) and parity (RR = 0.83) are found to be statistically significant (P<0.05) on BF. Conclusion: The residence, education, employment status and parity have significant effects on the present duration of BF that is about 20 months which is below the India's national figure of 25 months and WHO recommended figure of 24 months.