In model
4 (bottle-feeding), the child’s age and province were the only 2 variables that made significant contributions to the model. An increase in child’s age was KU-60019 purchase negatively correlated with bottle-feeding, whereas the odds of children in Nairobi being fed using a bottle was higher as compared to children in the Eastern province. This study set out to investigate trends in breastfeeding practices in Kenya using 3 surveys conducted in 1998, 2003, and 2008-2009. The study also conducted a multivariate analysis on the predictors of breastfeeding practices using the 2008-2009 survey. To summarize the main results, the trends in exclusive breastfeeding showed mostly significant improvement, although the starting point in 1998 was low (ranging from 13% to 21% in the various sociodemographic groups studied). The most dramatic improvement was for children in the poorest wealth quintile, with exclusive breastfeeding more than tripling at 54% in 2008-2009. We speculate that the breastfeeding health education efforts and campaigns in Kenya, referred to in the Introduction, may have had a real impact
at all sociodemographic levels, but this cannot buy Palbociclib be confirmed by the limited data available in this study. Conversely, the trends in early initiation of breastfeeding, complementary feeding and breastfeeding, and bottle-feeding were stagnant or slightly worsened in most of the sociodemographic groups studied. Although these trends are not encouraging, efforts to promote breastfeeding in Kenya may have averted what otherwise might have been strongly worsening trends. This is conjectural, however, since there is no way to know what might have happened in the absence of the breastfeeding education efforts that have been made. Logistic regression models using the 2008-2009 data showed that accounting for other variables, the province where the mother resided was the most significant predictor
of early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and bottle-feeding. This raises the question, what is it about one’s Reverse transcriptase province of residence that might affect child feeding? Three factors may be important in this regard: governmental and nongovernmental health organizations that foster child health, regional living conditions, and culture with its myriad of local expressions [18], [30], [31], [32], [33] and [34]. Turning first to health organizations, the Kenyan government has undertaken a number of initiatives including implementation of the joint WHO/UNICEF principles on a global strategy for infant and young child feeding through the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and recent passing of a law regulating breast milk substitutes [35] and [36]. The encouraging trends in exclusive breastfeeding with significant increases in most sociodemographic groups could be an indicator of the impact of such initiatives.