Impact of Breast-Feeding and Other Determinants on the Physical Development of Under-Five Children in Ethiopia
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
As it has been active and all time concern of public health, it is the priority to study more about breast-feeding to support the recommendation of global and national health organizations and their stakeholders. Therefore, we designed the study to identify the potential determinants that have significant impact on physical development of children in Ethiopia and indeed we aimed at studying and stress the impact of breast-feeding on the physical development of under five children in the country. We employed multilevel ordinal logistic regression model on BMI categorized into three ordered categories, to study the effects of all covariates at respective levels. We based our study on the 2019 Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey (2019 EMDHS) collected in collaboration
of USAID, ESS and EPHI in 2019 and we accessed the data from DHS program after procedural requirement and getting permission to use the data set only for academic research work purpose as per the terms of agreement of DHS program. The statistical analysis based on the data that consists of 4825 U5 children whose height and weight recorded during the data collection was generated results that show the existence of significant association between covariates and physical development. The major findings show that breast-feeding status: breast-feeding for one year and less (AOR = 1.781, p < 0.001), breast-feeding for two years (AOR = 1.144, p < 0.01) and breast-feeding for two years and above (OR 0.511, p < 0.05) is found statistically significant factor of physical development of U5 children in Ethiopia. Similarly, Vaccination status: partial vaccination (AOR = 0.625, p < 0.05) and complete vaccination (AOR = 0.544, p < 0.05) is significant factor. Likewise community media access, mother’s education level, health facility, family economic status, ANC, PNC, professional delivery assistance, nutritional status, sex, age, residence are statistically significant determinants of U5 children physical development.
We forwarded our recommendation to mothers to breast-feed their child at least for two years beginning breast-feeding within an hour after delivery and continue providing only their breast milk for 6 months after birth. My second recommendation is for the government to prioritize expanding health facilities in order to support the continuation of life-cycles from which particularly breast-feeding. Finally, we recommend health centers and professionals to encourage breastfeeding and initiate breast-feeding at hospital; this recommendation stems from the observation that not all children born at hospital are immediately start breast-feeding.
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Impact of Breast-Feeding, Determinants on the Physical Development, Under-Five Children in Ethiopia