Determinants of the status of breast feeding in Uganda.
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the factors that determine the status of breastfeeding in Uganda; specifically the social-demographic factors influencing exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers in the different regions across the country. The investigation embraced a cross-sectional survey plan. The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) dataset was used for this study since it has plenty information about the social demographic and economic welfare of the Ugandan population (at least as at 2016).The targeted populace was mothers who have newborn children between 0-6 months old or at least those who have children under age 2.A total representative sample of 20,880 households comprising of 15,522 respondents who were mothers between the ages of 15 and 49 was used. The average age was within the range of 25-34 and 62.52% of the respondents reported that their highest level of education was the primary level. Majority of the mothers indicated that they were currently living with their partners (84.82%) with 51.46% of households not being poor and 81.89% of mothers residing in rural areas.50.53% of children under age 2 were male. It was reported that majority of the mothers had ever breastfed and/or are not currently breastfeeding (64.17%), followed by those who are still breastfeeding (32.33%) and only 3.5% had never breastfed. The relationships between socio-demographic factors and status of breastfeeding were analyzed using Chi-square and Multinomial logistic regression at 95% confidence level. Results showed that the significant factors that influence status of breastfeeding among nursing mothers in Uganda were mother’s age (p = 0.000, OR = 0.7198), marital status (p = 0.001, OR = 1.1848), household wealth status (p = 0.002, OR = 0.8897) and residential status (p = 0.012, OR = 1.1324).On the other hand, a mother’s education level (p = 0.446, OR = 1.0212) and the sex of her child(p = 0.681, OR = 0.9828) were not significant predictors of the status of breastfeeding. The opportunity cost for women with higher education level especially in urban areas is so high that they have to shorten the duration of breastfeeding their children. The probability of breastfeeding a child also decreases with the aging of the mother. It was advised that Health Care Specialists must rise to the occasion by offering nutritional instruction and wellbeing education to mothers of under-fives, and the general public so as to promote exclusive breastfeeding.