Centre for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Université de Paris, Inserm, Inrae, Paris, France.
Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore.
Birth. 2020 Jun;47(2):191-201. doi: 10.1111/birt.12477. Epub 2019 Dec 28.
Religion has rarely been studied as a determinant of infant feeding practices. We examined whether religious affiliation is associated with formula feeding vs breastfeeding intention and practice in women from the United States Project Viva cohort.
Between 1999 and 2002, 2128 pregnant women were recruited in the area of Boston, Massachusetts. They reported by questionnaire their religious affiliation, and their intended and practiced infant feeding mode (exclusive formula feeding vs partial vs exclusive breastfeeding) at different time points. We examined associations of religious affiliation with infant feeding intention and practice by modified Poisson regression and multinomial logistic regression adjusted for known sociodemographic confounders.
Of 1637 women with complete data, 52% reported being Catholic, 29% Protestant, 11% unaffiliated, 4% Jewish, and 4% other religion. Overall, 8.5% and 15.9% women intended and initiated exclusive formula feeding, respectively. Compared with unaffiliated women, Catholics were more at risk to intend to exclusively formula-feed their infant at birth (risk ratio [95% CI]: 6.4 [1.6-26.0]) and to exclusively formula-feed after delivery (2.4 [1.3-4.2]) and 3 months postpartum (1.3 [0.98-1.8]). The odds ratio for intending and practicing partial (vs exclusive) breastfeeding did not differ by religious affiliation at most examined time points. Associations of Protestant women with infant feeding exhibited estimates closer to unaffiliated than to Catholic women.
Catholic women are more at risk to intend and practice exclusive formula feeding than women of other religious affiliations. Our findings may help health care practitioners adapt their breastfeeding promotion to the mother's religious affiliation.
宗教作为影响婴儿喂养方式的因素之一，鲜有研究涉及。本研究旨在探讨美国“生活项目”（Viva）队列中女性的宗教信仰是否与配方奶喂养和母乳喂养的意愿和实践有关。
1999 年至 2002 年间，在马萨诸塞州波士顿地区招募了 2128 名孕妇。她们通过问卷报告了自己的宗教信仰以及不同时间点的婴儿喂养模式（完全配方奶喂养、部分母乳喂养、纯母乳喂养）的意向和实际情况。通过调整已知社会人口统计学混杂因素的修正泊松回归和多项逻辑回归分析，研究了宗教信仰与婴儿喂养意愿和实践的相关性。
在 1637 名有完整数据的女性中，52%报告自己是天主教徒，29%是新教徒，11%是无宗教信仰者，4%是犹太人，4%是其他宗教信仰者。总的来说，8.5%和 15.9%的女性分别打算和开始完全配方奶喂养。与无宗教信仰者相比，天主教徒更有可能在分娩时就打算完全用配方奶喂养婴儿（风险比[95%置信区间]：6.4[1.6-26.0]），并在分娩后（2.4[1.3-4.2]）和产后 3 个月（1.3[0.98-1.8]）完全用配方奶喂养。在大多数检查时间点，宗教信仰与打算进行部分（而非完全）母乳喂养之间的比值比没有差异。与无宗教信仰者相比，新教女性与婴儿喂养的关联更接近天主教女性。
与其他宗教信仰的女性相比，天主教女性更有可能打算并实施完全配方奶喂养。我们的研究结果可能有助于医疗保健提供者根据母亲的宗教信仰调整其母乳喂养促进措施。
