PREDICTING EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING INTENTION AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN IBADAN NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Breastfeeding is an internationally recognized and supported practice. It is the preferred method of infant feeding because it has numerous health benefits for a mother and her new-born. By adulthood, mothers’ choice to breastfeed relay largely on knowledge and attitude which had been developed usually in adolescence. However, there is a paucity of information on the intention to exclusively breastfeed among adolescents. Hence, focusing on the pre-motherhood population is essential, so as to confer the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. A descriptive community-based cross-sectional study was done and four-stage sampling technique was used to select 271 respondents. A pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire consisting of respondent’s socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and intentions of adolescent towards exclusive breastfeeding was used. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS version 21 at p≤ 0.05. A 26-point knowledge scale was used to assess level of knowledge and was categorised as poor (0-8), fair (9-17) and good (>18). A 13-point attitude scale was used to assess respondents’ attitude, poor (0-6), and good (>7). A 10-point intention scale was used to assess respondents’ intention, (0-5) as poor and (>6) as good. The age of the respondents was 17.5±1.3 years; 89.7% were Yoruba, 97.0% single and 64.6% completed secondary school. Students made up 55.4%. Information about exclusive breastfeeding were obtained from relatives (61.6%), parents (53.9%), teachers (42.4%), mass media (39.9%) and hospital/clinic (33.2%). More than half (53.1%) of the respondents do not know the meaning of exclusive breastfeeding. Although 90.0% of the respondents agreed that breast milk is cheaper than infant formula, however, 48.3% were of the opinion that breast milk only was not sufficient for infants in the first 6 months of life. Also, only 32.8% disagreed that water should be introduced to infants before 6 months of life. Overall, good knowledge score was found among only 22.5%. With regards to attitude, just an average (50.2%) have positive attitude towards exclusively breastfeeding. Although 96.3% had the intention to breastfeed their child later in future, only 39.9% have the intention to breastfeed exclusively. Overall, good intention score was found among just 37.8%. There was significant relationship between intention and respondents’ age, religion, educational attainment, both parents’ educational attainment, level of knowledge and attitude. Logistic regression was used to assess association of knowledge, attitude and socio-demographic variables on intention to breastfeed. For inferential statistics using the logistic regression model, Wald statistic indicated that significant predictors of good intention to practise EBF were knowledge and attitude with the coefficient of p =< 0.001. Breastfeeding knowledge and attitude were found to be relatively fair among majority of the respondents. However, it was noted that intention to breastfeeding was poor. The mass media that can reach a large audience is recommended to improve knowledge, attitude and intention through interventions that would pass across the right information to the target audience and other community members