Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences Division, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Room 4.10, School of Medicine, King's College London, Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
Public Health Nutr. 2012 Sep;15(9):1661-9. doi: 10.1017/S1368980012002868. Epub 2012 May 28.
The aim of the present study was to explore knowledge of the UK weaning guidelines and the sources of weaning advice used by UK first-time mothers.
An online survey of UK parents; analysed using mixed methods.
Participants were recruited from a selection of parenting websites that hosted a link to the survey.
In total, 1348 UK first-time mothers were included in the analysis.
Knowledge of the guidelines was high (86 %) and associated with later weaning (P < 0·001), although 43 % of this sample weaned before 24 weeks. The majority of parents used multiple sources of information, the most influential being the health visitor (26 %), the Internet (25 %) and books (18 %). Fifty-six per cent said they received conflicting advice. Younger mothers and those of lower educational attainment were more likely to be influenced by advice from family, which was likely to be to wean earlier. Furthermore, those most influenced by their mother/grandmother were less likely to have accurate knowledge of the guidelines. In this population the Internet was used for weaning advice across all sociodemographic groups and was associated with a later weaning age, independently of sociodemographic factors (P < 0·001). Data from responses to a free-text question are used in illustration.
The study suggests that first-time mothers have a good understanding of the weaning guidelines but seek weaning information from multiple sources, much of which is conflicting. Informal sources of weaning advice appear most influential in younger mothers and those of lower educational attainment, and result in earlier weaning.
本研究旨在探讨英国断奶指南的知识以及英国初为人母者使用的断奶建议来源。
对英国父母进行的在线调查；采用混合方法分析。
参与者是从一些育儿网站中招募的，这些网站都托管了调查链接。
共有 1348 名英国初为人母者被纳入分析。
对指南的了解程度很高（86%），与晚断奶相关（P<0·001），尽管该样本中有 43%的人在 24 周前断奶。大多数父母使用多种信息来源，最有影响力的是健康访视员（26%）、互联网（25%）和书籍（18%）。56%的人表示他们收到了相互矛盾的建议。年轻母亲和受教育程度较低的母亲更容易受到来自家庭的建议的影响，而这些建议可能更倾向于更早断奶。此外，那些最受母亲/祖母影响的人不太可能准确了解指南。在这一人群中，互联网在所有社会人口统计学群体中都被用于获取断奶建议，并且与较晚的断奶年龄独立相关（P<0·001）。使用来自自由文本问题的回复进行说明。
研究表明，初为人母者对断奶指南有很好的了解，但会从多个来源寻找断奶信息，其中很多信息是相互矛盾的。非正式的断奶建议来源在年轻母亲和受教育程度较低的母亲中最有影响力，导致她们更早断奶。
