Predictors of Breastfeeding Duration among Women in Kuwait: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study
1
Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G31 2ER, UK
2
Nutrition Unit, Jaber Al-Ahmed Armed Forces Hospital, Ministry of Defense, Sabhan 46004, Kuwait
3
School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia
4
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kuwait University, Safat 13060, Kuwait
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2014, 6(2), 711-728; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6020711
Received: 20 January 2014
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Revised: 28 January 2014
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Accepted: 8 February 2014
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Published: 20 February 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Paediatric Nutrition)
The purposes of this paper are to report the prevalence of breastfeeding to six months among women in Kuwait and to determine the factors that are associated with the duration of breastfeeding. A cohort of 373 women recruited from maternity wards in four hospitals in Kuwait city were followed from birth to 26 weeks postpartum. The association of any and full breastfeeding duration and predictor variables were explored using multivariate Cox’s proportional hazards models. At six months, 39% of all infants were receiving some breast milk and only 2% of infants had been fully breastfed to 26 weeks. Women born in other Arab countries were less likely to discontinue breastfeeding than women born in Kuwait. Other factors positively associated with breastfeeding duration were level of maternal education, higher parity, infant being demand fed in hospital and a preference for breastfeeding on the part of the infant’s father and maternal grandmother. The introduction of a pacifier before four weeks of age and the mother intending to return to work by six months were negatively associated with duration. These findings present a number of opportunities for prolonging breastfeeding duration in Kuwait.
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Keywords:
breastfeeding; duration; determinants; Middle East
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Dashti, M.; Scott, J.A.; Edwards, C.A.; Al-Sughayer, M. Predictors of Breastfeeding Duration among Women in Kuwait: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study. Nutrients 2014, 6, 711-728. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6020711
AMA Style
Dashti M, Scott JA, Edwards CA, Al-Sughayer M. Predictors of Breastfeeding Duration among Women in Kuwait: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study. Nutrients. 2014; 6(2):711-728. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6020711
Chicago/Turabian StyleDashti, Manal, Jane A. Scott, Christine A. Edwards, and Mona Al-Sughayer. 2014. "Predictors of Breastfeeding Duration among Women in Kuwait: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study" Nutrients 6, no. 2: 711-728. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6020711
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