TY - JOUR
T1 - High education and increased parity are associated with breast-feeding initiation and duration among Australian women
AU - Holowko, Natalie
AU - Jones, Mark
AU - Koupil, Ilona
AU - Tooth, Leigh
AU - Mishra, Gita
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank all ALSWH participants. Financial support: This work was supported by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health. The ALSWH was conceived and developed by researchers at the University of Newcastle and the University of Queensland, Australia. N.H. is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship. G.M. is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT 120100812). I.K. is supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (project 2006-1518). The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article. Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: All authors conceived and designed the study. Data were analysed by N.H., M.J. and G.M., while all authors were involved in interpreting the results. N.H. drafted the article. All authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and have read and approved the final manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: The ALSWH was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committees of the Universities of Newcastle and Queensland, and all study participants provided informed consent.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors 2016.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Objective Breast-feeding is associated with positive maternal and infant health and development outcomes. To assist identifying women less likely to meet infant nutritional guidelines, we investigated the role of socio-economic position and parity on initiation of and sustaining breast-feeding for at least 6 months. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Australia. Subjects Parous women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (born 1973-78), with self-reported reproductive and breast-feeding history (N 4777). Results While 89 % of women (83 % of infants) had ever breast-fed, only 60 % of infants were breast-fed for at least 6 months. Multiparous women were more likely to breast-feed their first child (~90 % v. ~71 % of primiparous women), and women who breast-fed their first child were more likely to breast-feed subsequent children. Women with a low education (adjusted OR (95 % CI): 2·09 (1·67, 2·62)) or a very low-educated parent (1·47 (1·16, 1·88)) had increased odds of not initiating breast-feeding with their first or subsequent children. While fewer women initiated breast-feeding with their youngest child, this was most pronounced among high-educated women. While ~60 % of women breast-fed their first, second and third child for at least 6 months, low-educated women (first child, adjusted OR (95 % CI): 2·19 (1·79, 2·68)) and women with a very low (1·82 (1·49, 2·22)) or low-educated parent (1·69 (1·33, 2·14)) had increased odds of not breast-feeding for at least 6 months. Conclusions A greater understanding of barriers to initiating and sustaining breast-feeding, some of which are socio-economic-specific, may assist in reducing inequalities in infant breast-feeding.
AB - Objective Breast-feeding is associated with positive maternal and infant health and development outcomes. To assist identifying women less likely to meet infant nutritional guidelines, we investigated the role of socio-economic position and parity on initiation of and sustaining breast-feeding for at least 6 months. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Australia. Subjects Parous women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (born 1973-78), with self-reported reproductive and breast-feeding history (N 4777). Results While 89 % of women (83 % of infants) had ever breast-fed, only 60 % of infants were breast-fed for at least 6 months. Multiparous women were more likely to breast-feed their first child (~90 % v. ~71 % of primiparous women), and women who breast-fed their first child were more likely to breast-feed subsequent children. Women with a low education (adjusted OR (95 % CI): 2·09 (1·67, 2·62)) or a very low-educated parent (1·47 (1·16, 1·88)) had increased odds of not initiating breast-feeding with their first or subsequent children. While fewer women initiated breast-feeding with their youngest child, this was most pronounced among high-educated women. While ~60 % of women breast-fed their first, second and third child for at least 6 months, low-educated women (first child, adjusted OR (95 % CI): 2·19 (1·79, 2·68)) and women with a very low (1·82 (1·49, 2·22)) or low-educated parent (1·69 (1·33, 2·14)) had increased odds of not breast-feeding for at least 6 months. Conclusions A greater understanding of barriers to initiating and sustaining breast-feeding, some of which are socio-economic-specific, may assist in reducing inequalities in infant breast-feeding.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961393544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1368980016000367
DO - 10.1017/S1368980016000367
M3 - Article
C2 - 26996672
AN - SCOPUS:84961393544
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 19
SP - 2551
EP - 2561
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
IS - 14
ER -
