Objective: To describe breastfeeding practices and to assess the sociodemographic factors associated with selected
breastfeeding indicators.
Design and setting: The 2003 Demographic and Health Survey was a multi-stage cluster sample survey of 4320 households
from four different geographic areas in Timor-Leste.
Subjects: A total of 2162 children aged 0–23 months.
Results: A high proportion (97.6%) of infants had been ever breastfed, but only 46.1% had initiated breastfeeding within the
first hour of birth. Seventy-eight percent of children o24 months were currently breastfed, 30.7% of infants o6 months were
exclusively breastfed and 12.5% of infants o12 months were bottle-fed. A high proportion of infants of 6–9 months (82.0%)
were receiving complementary food in addition to breast milk. Multivariate analysis revealed that exclusive breastfeeding was
significantly lower in the rural west region (odds ratio (OR) ¼ 3.15) compared to the urban region, and among those from
richest households (OR ¼ 1.90) compared to poorest. Mothers with primary education were significantly more likely to
exclusively breastfeed than mothers with no education (OR ¼ 0.62). Increasing age of the infant was associated with significantly
less current (OR ¼ 1.23) and exclusive (OR ¼ 1.35) breastfeeding. Continuation of breastfeeding at the end of the first year was
significantly lower in non-working mothers (OR ¼ 1.58) compared to working mothers, and among infants born in health-care
facilities (OR ¼ 2.16) than those born at home.
Conclusions: Breastfeeding practices in Timor-Leste were satisfactory, except the exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months. However,
more socioeconomically privileged groups demonstrated a poorer breastfeeding performance than disadvantaged groups.
Further breastfeeding promotion programmes are needed across all population groups, and should include health-care
providers and maternity institutions.