Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018
Published June 3, 2021, in Nature Human Behaviour (opens in a new window)
Abstract
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)—giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life—is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.
Citation
Bhattacharjee NV, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators. Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018. Nature Human Behaviour. 3 June 2021. doi:.10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6.
Authors
- Natalia Bhattacharjee,
- Lauren Schaeffer,
- Simon Hay,
- Megan Schipp,
- Alice Lazzar-Atwood,
- Katie Donkers,
- James Albright,
- Michael Collison,
- Aubrey Cook,
- Michael Cork,
- Lalit Dandona,
- Rakhi Dandona,
- Nicole Weaver,
- Samath D. Dharmaratne,
- Laura Dwyer-Lindgren,
- Lucas Earl,
- Valery Feigin,
- William Gardner,
- Julia Hon,
- Kimberly Johnson,
- Nicholas Kassebaum,
- Damaris Kinyoki,
- Kate LeGrand,
- Ian Letourneau,
- Celia Louie,
- Laurie Marczak,
- Ali Mokdad,
- Jon Mosser,
- Sandra Munro,
- Aaron Osgood-Zimmerman,
- Brandon Pickering,
- Bobby Reiner,
- Alyssa Sbarra,
- Emma Spurlock,
- Krista Steuben,
- Lauren Woyczynski
Datasets
All our datasets are housed in our data catalog, the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx). Visit the GHDx to download data from this article.