Consistency of the Determinants of Early Initiation of Breastfeeding in Ghana: Insights From Four Demographic and Health Survey Datasets

Authors

• Precious Adade Duodu, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
• Henry Ofori Duah, Marquette UniversityFollow
• Veronica Millicent Dzomeku, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
• Adwoa B. Boamah Mensah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
• Josephine Aboagye Mensah, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
• Ernest Darkwah, University of Ghana
• Pascal Agbadi, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-17-2020

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Source Publication

International Health

Source ISSN

1876-3405

Abstract

Background

Early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF) is a key strategy in averting neonatal deaths. However, studies on the facilitators and risk factors for EIBF are rare in Ghana. We examined trends in EIBF and its major facilitators and risk factors in Ghana using data from Demographic and Health Surveys from 1998 to 2014. Methods

We used complete weighted data of 3194, 3639, 2909 and 5695 pairs of mothers ages 15–49 y and their children ages 0–5 y in the 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2014 surveys, respectively. We accounted for the complex sampling used in the surveys for both descriptive statistics and multiple variable risk ratio analysis. Results

The proportion of children who achieved EIBF increased by about 2.5 times from 1998 to 2003 and there was a marginal increase in the proportion of children who achieved EIBF between 2003 and 2014. Children born by caesarean section were at higher risk of being breastfed later than 1 h across all four surveys. Being born in the Upper East Region (compared with the Western Region) of Ghana facilitated EIBF in 2003 and 2008. Conclusions

The study revealed that the current estimate of the proportion of children achieving EIBF in Ghana was 55.1%, and delivery by caesarean section and region of residence consistently predicted the practice of EIBF in Ghana.

Comments

Published version. International Health, Vol. 13, No. 1 (2021): 39-48. DOI. © 2021 The Authors, published by Oxford University Press. Used with permission.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Henry Duah was affiliated with Foundation of Orthopaedic and Complex Spine Hospital, Accra, Ghana at the time of publication.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Duodu, Precious Adade; Duah, Henry Ofori; Dzomeku, Veronica Millicent; Boamah Mensah, Adwoa B.; Mensah, Josephine Aboagye; Darkwah, Ernest; and Agbadi, Pascal, "Consistency of the Determinants of Early Initiation of Breastfeeding in Ghana: Insights From Four Demographic and Health Survey Datasets" (2020). College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications. 1191.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/nursing_fac/1191