Knowledge and Practice of Exclusive Breast Feeding: Effects of Health Promotion Intervention in Nigeria.

Abstract

AIM: Low level of knowledge and practice of exclusive breast feeding have been reported in Nigeria especially in rural communities. The purpose of this study is to identify factors contributing to low knowledge and practice of exclusive breast feeding (E B F) in rural communities of Abia State, Nigeria and apply health promotion intervention (H P I) to address these factors in order to increase knowledge and practice of E B F. METHOD: A quasi-experimental study design was used. Four communities formed the unit of allocation to experimental and control groups for the purpose of introducing health promotion intervention. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting the study sample. A sample size of 400 households out of 1978 enumerated from the four communities was used for the survey, two as experimental and two as control. Data were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire that was interviewer administered. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Chi-square statistic was used in determining statistical significance. Analysis of knowledge and practice of EBF was taken before and after H P I and compared in both experimental and control groups.\ RESULT: The results indicated increase in knowledge of E B F from 28(14%) to 200(98.5%). Correspondingly, practice of E B F increased from 21 (10%) to 162(80%) in the experimental group. No significant increase was made in the control group both in knowledge and practice of EBF. Factors contributing to low level of practice of EBF in the study area included low level of knowledge about ten steps to successful breast feeding, illusory fears about EBF, ignorance, resistance to change, cultural imperatives and medical reasons. Health promotion intervention directed at the rural women helped to scale up the practice of EBF to 70% within nine months. CONCLUSION: The study recommends health promotion intervention as a proven method for scaling up knowledge and practice of EBF in rural communities. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2011; 10(6.000): 657-664

Knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among antenatal attendees in Uyo, Southern Nigeria

“…The BFHI aims to provide a supportive environment for breastfeeding. The initiative also encourages mothers to know and practice the ten steps to successful breastfeeding (SBF) as well as enables them develop positive attitude towards the practice of EBF (10,11).…”

Effectiveness of Health Education in Increasing the Duration of Exclusive Breastfeeding in Low Income Countries: A Systematic Review

“…In other words, the health education intervention was effective in significantly increasing the duration of EBF in the study group compared with the control group. Regarding the before -after studies, the findings revealed that all the three studies reported a significantly higher rate of difference in the duration of exclusive breastfeeding between the intervention group and the control group [31][32][33]. Overall, ten (10) of the studies reported a significantly higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the intervention group compared with the control group.…”

“…The studies examined in this review employed various educational methods in communicating health messages to the study participants. It was also found that five of the studies that reported a significantly higher rate of EBF in the intervention group relied on multiple and audio-visual methods in communicating health messages to the study participants [27][28][29]31,33]. Discussion and lecture methods appeared to be common in many of the studies.…”

“…Four of the studies were rated as moderate because they achieved one weak rating in one of the six components [7,23,25,26]. The remaining eight papers had two or more weak ratings in their components and therefore were rated as methodologically weak [24,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Figure 2 depicts the component ratings for all the included studies.…”

“…Of these, five (5) were randomized controlled trial [23][24][25][26], and four (4) of the eight (8) remaining studies were determined to be non-randomized controlled trial [7,[27][28][29]. The remaining three (3) were before and after studies with control group [30][31][32][33]. Table 1 provides details of the study design, sample size and the nature of interventions.…”