Association Between Exclusive Breastfeeding With Pneumonia And Diarrhoea, Among Infants Aged 0 To 6 Months Born To Women From Pastoralists And Hunters Community In Manyara Region, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia and Diarrhea are the most common childhood

illnesses and are the leading cause of high childhood morbidity and mortality in

Manyara Region. EBF is known to be able to protect infants against these illnesses,

however not much is known about the breastfeeding practices in Manyara Region

and how much it contributes to pneumonia and diarrhea.

Objective: This study aimed at determining the association between EBF with

pneumonia and diarrhoea among infants aged 0 to 6 months born to women from

pastoralists and hunters community in Manyara Region.

Methods: This was a community based cross sectional analytical study, with a

quantitative approach. Data was collected by using interviewer- administered

questionnaire. Purposive sampling was done to select the region and multistage

sampling was used to select districts, wards, villages and households. Data were

analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20, and findings

were presented in tables, figures, frequencies, percentages, chi-square, Odd Ratio

(OR) and Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR).

Results: Out of 342 infants who were investigated, 42.4% (145) were having good

breastfeeding practices and were still on EBF at the time of the study. The factors

which were reported to influence EBF were maternal knowledge [AOR 0.086;

p=0.001; 95% CI 0.028-0.548], ANC attendance [AOR 1.154; p=0.005; 95% CI

1.023-3.042] and social cultural factors [AOR 0.254; p=0.017; 95% CI 0.024-0.786]

Prevalence of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea was 16.7% and 8.5% respectively. The

results showed that there was a significant association between pneumonia and

infants age 4-5 months [AOR 1.429; p= 0.014; 95%CI 1.373-4.836], unsupportive

social-cultural standards about EBF [AOR 2.625; p= 0.012; 95%CI 1.234-5.575] and

poor breastfeeding practices [AOR 9.314; p= 0.011; 95%CI 1.236-14.376] after

controlling for confounders. However, Breastfeeding practices was not associated

with diarrhea after controlling for cofounders [AOR 1.889; p= 0.524; 95%CI 0.293-

3.534].

Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding is still low among infants of pastoralists and