Ito Jun, Fujiwara Takeo, Barr Ronald G
1Department of Social Medicine, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
J Hum Lact. 2013 Nov;29(4):491-9. doi: 10.1177/0890334413488680. Epub 2013 May 17.
One qualitative study has reported that more paternal infant care and housework contributed to the maintenance of breastfeeding. However, few studies have quantitatively investigated these relationships.
This study aimed to examine the association of paternal involvement in infant care and housework with exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life.
Data from a population-based birth cohort study in Japan, the Longitudinal Survey of Babies in the 21st Century, were analyzed. We extracted information on infants who were singletons, term, normal birth weight, and living with both parents (n = 39 742). The associations between degree of paternal involvement in infant care and housework (high, middle, low) and breastfeeding patterns (exclusive, partial, formula only) were analyzed using ordered logistic regression adjusted for covariates. Maternal anxiety about childrearing was considered as a mediator.
Compared with the low level of paternal infant care group, infants in the middle and high level groups were significantly less likely to have been breastfed (adjusted odds ratio: 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84-0.97; and 0.73, 95% CI, 0.67-0.79, respectively). In contrast, the amount of housework carried out by fathers was not associated with breastfeeding pattern. Maternal anxiety about childrearing did not attenuate the association between paternal infant care and breastfeeding.
Paternal infant care was inversely associated with breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life. An additional intervention study about the importance of breastfeeding that aims to educate fathers who tend to involve themselves in infant care is needed.
一项定性研究报告称，父亲更多地参与婴儿护理和家务有助于维持母乳喂养。然而，很少有研究对这些关系进行定量调查。
本研究旨在探讨父亲参与婴儿护理和家务与婴儿出生后头6个月纯母乳喂养之间的关联。
分析了日本一项基于人群的出生队列研究——21世纪婴儿纵向调查的数据。我们提取了关于单胎、足月、出生体重正常且与父母双方同住的婴儿的信息（n = 39742）。使用经协变量调整的有序逻辑回归分析父亲参与婴儿护理和家务的程度（高、中、低）与母乳喂养模式（纯母乳喂养、部分母乳喂养、仅配方奶喂养）之间的关联。将母亲对育儿的焦虑视为一个中介变量。
与父亲低水平参与婴儿护理组相比，父亲中等水平和高水平参与组的婴儿进行母乳喂养的可能性显著降低（调整后的优势比分别为：0.90，95%置信区间[CI]，0.84 - 0.97；以及0.73，95%CI，0.67 - 0.79）。相比之下，父亲承担的家务量与母乳喂养模式无关。母亲对育儿的焦虑并未减弱父亲参与婴儿护理与母乳喂养之间的关联。
在婴儿出生后的头6个月，父亲参与婴儿护理与母乳喂养呈负相关。需要开展一项额外的关于母乳喂养重要性的干预研究，旨在教育那些倾向于参与婴儿护理的父亲。
