Abstract
Objectives:
to examine risk factors for not breastfeeding in the State of Pernambuco, in the Northeast region of Brazil, in 2006.
Methods:
a case-control study was carried out, with cases (70 children who had never breastfed) and controls (140 children exclusively breastfed for four months or more) were paired by sex and age, based on data from the 3rd State Study of Health and Nutrition, conducted in Pernambuco, in 2006. Both maternal and biological variables relating to the children were examined. Bivariate analyses were used to calculate the crude odds ratio. Adjustments applied using Poisson’s logistic regression were employed to selectively incorporate variables with p<0.20. Variables were considered to be significant when p<0.05.
Results:
mothers aged 36 years or older (p=0.021) and lack of guidance with regard to breastfeeding during prenatal care (p=0.014) were risk factors with an odds ratio four to five times higher than others for not breastfeeding.
Conclusions:
the two variables shown to be significant suggest that the outlook for controlling not breastfeeding is good. In Pernambuco, the prevalence rate of 5% for children who have never breastfed is bordering on satisfactory, according to countries with good child health, thereby suggesting that the problem is close to being brought under control.
Key words
Breastfeeding; Risk factors; Maternal and child health