How is parental education associated with infant and young child feeding in Bangladesh? A systematic literature review

Abstract

Background Education is expected to bring about positive behavioral changes that could lead to better health, especially parental education is one of the most important factors for a child’s health and development. However, the role of parental education on optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in Bangladesh is inconclusive. The objective of this review is to summarize how parental education is associated with IYCF practices in Bangladesh. Method This review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar. Record searching, study selection and data extraction was performed using Endnote online and Covidence software, respectively. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used for quality assessment of the included studies. Results Out of 414 initial hits, 34 studies were included for this review. Of the included studies, 32 were cross-sectional, one was a randomized controlled trial, and one was a retrospective cohort. Most of the studies (n=24) were nationally representative whereas 10 studies had populations from district and sub-district level. Included studies considered different IYCF related indicators, including breastfeeding (n=22), complementary feeding (n=8), both breastfeeding and complementary feeding (n=2), both breastfeeding and bottle feeding (n=1), and pre-lacteal feeding (n=1). Parental education was found positively associated with complementary feeding practices. However, the role of parental education on breastfeeding, in general, was ambiguous. High parental education was associated with bottle-feeding practices and no initiation of colostrum. Conclusion Public health interventions need to focus not only on non- and/or low educated parents regarding complementary feeding but also on educated mothers on initiation of colostrum and proper breastfeeding practices. Registration This systematic review is registered to PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/) with registration ID: CRD42022355465

Determinants of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Mothers of Infants Less Than Six Months of Age in Mogadishu: A Facility-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…Surprisingly, the study discovered an intriguing relationship between education level and exclusive breastfeeding. Contrary to various studies conducted in Africa and Asia [19][20][21][22] , our findings revealed that mothers with no formal education had around nine times higher odds of practicing exclusive breastfeeding, while those with primary education had approximately five times higher odds in comparison with university graduates. Almost similar result was reported by Hossain et al 23 .…”