Impact of sociodemographic features of mothers on breastfeeding in Croatia: questionnaire study.

AIM

To determine sociodemographic features that describe mothers who are likely to wean their babies earlier then is recommended and whether the rates of breast-fed children in Croatia had improved since 1996.

METHODS

A sample of 500 mothers was selected from the population of women who had delivered 2 to 12 months before the interview. The sample was stratified according to the region, urbanization, and child's age. The questionnaire was designed to give a sociodemographic profile of the mother and to describe child's present nutritional habits, duration and reasons for breast-feeding, and reasons for weaning. Chi-square test was used to estimate statistical differences of two qualitative variables. ANOVA test was used for multiple group comparisons.

RESULTS

There were significantly more breast-feeding mothers among older than among younger women (46.3% vs 31.7%; p=0.041). Significantly greater proportion of women with higher educational level breast-fed, as compared with less educated women (53.8% vs 31.3%, p=0.002). Percentage of non-smokers among breast-feeding mothers was significantly higher than that of smokers (45.0% vs 25.7%, p=0.001). After the age of 3 months, 30.7% of children were still breast-fed, and only 11.0% after 6 months of age. With regard to the nutritional habits in the first year of life, 40.0% of all children were fed with cow's milk. Supplementary feeding was started by 29.2% of respondents before the end of the third month.

CONCLUSION

Older, better educated, and non-smoking mothers in Croatia breast-fed at a higher rate then young, less educated, and smoking mothers. Older mothers also weaned their children significantly later than the young ones. Percentage of children fed with cow's milk during the first year of life is disturbingly high and introduction of solids into child's nutrition is earlier than recommended.