[Prevalence and determinants of continued breastfeeding beyond 6 months among Algerian women. Evidence for Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys].

Background and rationale: Breastfeeding is considered the best nutrition for infants and plays a significant role in a child's growth and development. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, as well as continued breastfeeding when safe and appropriate complementary foods are introduced, up to 2 years of age or beyond. Nonetheless, breastfeeding practices remain sub-optimal in many parts of the world. In this respect, many children have shown not to be breastfed up to 6 months of age or are not breastfed during their first hours of life or are weaned too early. This allows for the use of infant formula, which can be life threatening due to poor hygiene, storage conditions or inappropriate foods. Likewise, breastfeeding rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are lower than the global average. In Algeria, the breastfeeding rate up to 6 months of age is among the lowest in the world according to previous Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS) reports. In addition, by the end of the sixth month, the percentage of children exclusively breastfed is less than 3% and only 23% of children receive breast milk at 22-23 months. The median duration of breast-feeding is 12 weeks. However, the socio-demographic factors associated with this sub-optimal breastfeeding practice are not explored in these reports, as studies and research conducted in this context using other data are few and mostly conducted in limited geographical areas.

Materials and methods: This stands for a descriptive cross-sectional study of all children who were breastfed in the MICS database, carried out in 2019, 8 709 children, including 4 471 boys and 4 238 girls, registered in the database. To explore factors associated with the duration of breastfeeding, we only included weaned children to minimize bias related to children who were still breastfeeding. This allowed to analyze data from 3 761 children, including 1 930 boys (5.4%) and 1,831 girls (48.6%). Through using a logistic regression model, we could attain the assessment of the role of different socio-demographic, economic and geographical factors in the maintenance of breastfeeding beyond 6 months.

Results: The prevalence of breastfeeding is 81.1%; the rate of exclusive breastfeeding of children aged 0-6 months is 28.7%. The factors associated with breastfeeding beyond six months are area of residence, mother's occupational status and wealth quintile. In fact, rural area appears to be a factor favoring the continuation of breastfeeding beyond six months, compared with urban area (OR = 1.29; CI [1.032-1.369]). Mothers living in the Eastern Highlands geographic region appear to be 1.56 times more likely to maintain breastfeeding for more than six months compared to those living in the Southern region (OR = 1.56; CI [1.123 - 1.677]). Children of non-working mothers are almost 1.5 times more likely to be breastfed after 6 months than those of working mothers (OR = 1.489; CI [1.107 - 1.947]). Parents belonging to the "richest" wealth quintiles appear to increase the chance of continued breastfeeding after 6 months with a 1.24-fold increase compared to those belonging to the "poorest" quintile (OR = 1.24; CI [1.086 - 1.812]). Factors such as the child's gender, maternal education level, and functional difficulties do not appear to be determining factors for the continuation of breastfeeding after six months.

Discussion and conclusion: The prevalence and factors associated with the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding vary from one country to another. Notwithstanding the numerous studies to better comprehend mothers' breastfeeding behaviour and various initiatives for promotion thereof, many countries have low rates. In consequence, the downward trend in breastfeeding is directly linked to advances in the production and marketing of industrial milks, the lack of information and awareness among mothers and the lack of training of health professionals. In this respect, it is highly recommended to encourage behavioural changes, to improve communication about the duration of breastfeeding, to increase the use of postnatal counselling and training of paramedical staff according to the recommendations with support for mothers.This study is of great interest in developing countries like Algeria, in order to adopt preventive interventions, and to organise communication and pre- and post-natal counselling in the breastfeeding project. Clearly, this study should be enhanced with supplementary qualitative studies concerning the factors contributing to early discontinuation of breastfeeding.