BARRIERS ASSOCIATED TO EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING AMONG WOMEN’S OF INFANTS UNDER-SIX MONTHS IN ETHIOPIA THE 2019 MINI EDHS DATASET

Abstract

Background:Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is the most cost-effective intervention to reduce infant morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is crucial; enable infants to have better immunity, physical and mental development. Despite its benefits, the prevalence of EBF in Ethiopia is lower than the internationally recommended. Therefore, theaim of this study wasto assess the prevalence and barriers associated with EBF among women of infants under-six months in Ethiopia Methods:The study used secondary-data obtained from (2019 EMDHS). The study design was a cross sectional survey. The 2019 EMDHS sample was selected using a stratified, two-stage cluster design. The selection of enumeration areas (EAs) were the first stage of sampling units. At the first stages, the sample included 305 EAs, which was 93 in urban areas and 212 in rural areas. Households comprised the second stage of sampling. A total of 573women were included in the analysis. A multi-level logistic regression model was employed to investigate barriersthat are significantly associated with EBF practice in Ethiopia. Result and conclusion: The prevalence of EBF practice was 59.86%, which is far from internationally recommended by WHO. There were enormous variations in the prevalence of EBF practice across the regional state of Ethiopia. The variation in prevalence of EBF practice among regional state of Ethiopia was found 8.30%. Based on the model adequacy tests the random intercept binary logistic regression model is found to be best fitting to the data. The results of multilevel random intercept with fixed effects model was revealed that, age group of women, wealth index of household, women education level, family size, place of delivery, ANC visit, residence and mode of delivery was found to be significant, indicating strong effects on EBF and also contributing to variations among regional state in Ethiopia. Recommendations:Having in consideration the impact of non-EBF practice, Concerned bodies (Health workers, husbands, policy makers, NGOs, UNICEF, WHO) should improve women access to school and health facilities, increase the awareness and attitude of women towards EBF in order to alleviate the problems associated with nonEBF practice were highly recommended.