Rates of and Factors Associated with Exclusive and Any Breastfeeding at Six Months in Canada: An analysis of population-based cross-sectional data
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Breastfeeding has many health, economic and environmental benefits for both the infant and pregnant individual. Due to these benefits, the World Health Organization and Health Canada recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of exclusive and any breastfeeding in Canada for at least six months, and factors associated with breastfeeding cessation prior to six months. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of breastfeeding-related questions asked on the cross-sectional 2017–2018 Canadian Community Health Survey. Our sample comprised 4,845 females aged 15–55 who had given birth in the five years preceding the survey. Descriptive statistics were carried out to assess the proportion of females exclusively breastfeeding and doing any breastfeeding for at least six months by demographic and behavioural factors. We also assessed, by baby’s age, trends in the introduction of solids and liquids, breastfeeding cessation and the reasons females stopped breastfeeding. Multivariate log binominal regression was used to examine the association between breastfeeding at six months and selected maternal characteristics hypothesized a priori to be associated with breastfeeding behaviour. Results Overall, for at least six months, 35.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 33.3%-37.8%) of females breastfed exclusively and 62.2% (95% CI: 60.0%-64.4%) did any breastfeeding. The largest decline in exclusive breastfeeding occurred in the first month. Factors most strongly associated with breastfeeding for at least six months were having a bachelor’s or higher degree, having a normal body mass index, being married and daily co-sleeping. Insufficient milk supply was given as the most common reason for breastfeeding cessation irrespective of when females stopped breastfeeding. Conclusion Six-month exclusive breastfeeding rates in Canada remain below targets set by the World Health Assembly. Continued efforts, including investment in monitoring of breastfeeding rates, are needed to promote and support exclusive breastfeeding, especially among females vulnerable to early cessation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".