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RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING RATES IN GHANA ARE NOT EXPLAINED BY VARIATIONS IN DHS INSTRUMENTS USED
Author(s) -
Timpo Olivia Mawunyo,
Lartey Anna,
PérezEscamilla Rafael
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a687-c
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , demography , medicine , infant feeding , child health , welfare , geography , pediatrics , political science , sociology , law
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have shown that exclusive breastfeeding rates among Ghanaian children under 6 months have increased from 2.2% in 1988, to 31.1% in 1998 and to 53.6% in 2003. These results may be partly explained by the fact that the infant feeding module used by DHS changed substantially during this period of time. We applied a structured questionnaire containing the two different DHS infant feeding modules to 200 Ghanaian women with children 0 to 60 months old. Women were recruited from child welfare centers and various communities in the 3 main ecological zones of the country: coastal, forest and savanna zones. Among these women, the prevalence of EBF during the previous 24 hrs was 24% regardless of the infant feeding module used to derive this estimate. The EBF correlation between the two modules was highly significant ( r 2 =.945, p <.01). Thus the secular EBF improvements in Ghana cannot be attributed to variations in the methods for EBF assessment. Rather the strong EBF promotion programs and policies put into place during this time period are likely to explain this successful outcome. Funded by the NIH/NICHD grant #HD42360.