Determinants of given anything other than breast milk for neonates in Ethiopia: a multilevel modeling complex sample survey data analysis.

BACKGROUND

Giving any things other than breast milk during the first 3 days after birth is a prelacteal feeding. Thus, providing anything other than breast milk to newborns has an impact on the prompt initiation and exclusive breastfeeding but a major issue in the developing countries. Therefore, the aimed to assess the determinants both individual and community level factors of given anything other than breast milk for neonates in Ethiopia.

METHODS

This study was a multilevel population-based cross-sectional conducted with total of weighted sample of 24,252 participants. The Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2019 data were the source of secondary data analysis used in the study. The data was hierarchical; therefore we performed a multilevel analysis. In the multivariable analysis, variables with p-value < 0.05 were deemed substantially correlated with given anything other than breast milk for neonates.

RESULTS

In this study, respondents with Catholic religion followers [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.05; 95%CI: 0.12, 0.28] timely initiation of breast feeding [AOR = 4.44; 95%CI: 2.91, 6.74], Cesarean delivery usage [AOR = 3.94; 95%CI: 2.13, 7.13], and being in communities with pastoralist region [AOR = 6.39; 95%CI: 3.03, 11.62] were significant predictors of given anything other than breast milk for neonates.

CONCLUSION

This study found that giving anything other than breast milk to newborns was associated with both individual and community level characteristics, particularly among members of the Catholic Church, prompt commencement of breastfeeding, use of cesarean section delivery, and contextual region categories. Therefore, improving maternal health and early breastfeeding services should be strengthen. Furthermore, it is preferable to fairly distribute maternal services among regions and to focus on people living in pastoralist regions.