Objectives: The main objective of this study is to assess the
Breastfeeding Duration, Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration and
other related factors among children aged less than 5 years old in
rural areas of Northern Iran.
Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional conducted on 2520
children aged 6-60 months (male: 1309, female: 1211) chosen by
cluster random sampling from 20 out of 118 villages. Data were
collected from mothers using a questionnaire. The duration of
breastfeeding was computed only for children aged over 24 months
old. Breastfeeding duration and Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration
were classified based on WHO definition. SPSS Version 16 was
used for data analysis.
Results: The mean Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration was 5.59
months, while 66.4% of children had exclusive breastfeeding for
at least 6 months. The lowest Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration
and the highest Breastfeeding Duration were observed among the
Turkman ethnic group. Exclusive Breastfeeding duration of at
least 5 months was 14.6%, thus the results were significantly higher
than in the Turkman ethnic group (p=0.001). Meanwhile, the
results showed that exclusive breastfeeding duration significantly
increased with maternal education level (p=0.004). The study
found that the mean breastfeeding duration was 20.6 months, and
89.3% and 74.7% of children were breastfed for at least 18 and 24
months, respectively. A positive correlation was reported between
breastfeeding duration and family size, birth order, maternal age
and children nutritional status, (p<0.05). Additionally, lactation
period in underweight children was significantly higher than in
obese children, (p=0.023).
Conclusion: The study found that two-thirds of children
exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life and the
mean breastfeeding duration was 20.6 months. While both
exclusive breastfeeding duration and breastfeeding duration were
influenced by socio-demographic factors in the rural areas of
Northern Iran.