Research question: What is the duration of breastfeeding in Bangladesh and what are the factors affecting it?

Objective: To assess the duration of breastfeeding among women in Bangladesh and socio-economic and demographic factors affecting it.

Design and Setting: Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 1999-2000 data were used for this study

Participants: The study included mothers of 6,939 children from six geographical divisions.

Methods: Information was collected from the women on socio-demographic characteristics and current breastfeeding status of their last and next to last child. The risk of complete weaning at different ages was estimated by life table survival method Independent effects of each of the study variables were estimated by using Cox's regression model.

Results: The median duration of breastfeeding was 30 months. Life table analysis showed complete risk of weaning children was found at age 3 months (1.3%), 6 months (1.1 %) and 12 months (4.3%) during the first year of l i f e. Cox regression analysis revealed that women who had lived in rural area were less likely to terminate breastfeeding than the women who lived in urban area (OR = 0 .78; 95% CI = 0. 70-0 .86). Women who had completed at least ten years education were more likely to stop breastfeeding than their counterparts (OR = 1 .32, 95% CI = 1.19-1.46). The women who receive antenatal care by the health professional had lower risk of terminating breastfeeding than the women who did not receive antenatal care (OR = 0 .57; 95% CI = 0 .51-0 .63).

Conclusion: Future breastfeeding programmes should give special attention to the mothers with higher education, those who lived in urban areas and did not receive antenatal care, since they breastfed relatively shorter periods of time