Breast-feeding initiation in a triethnic population
D. E. Bee, T. Baranowski, D. K. Rassin, C. J. Richardson and W. Mikrut
Department of Pediatrics, Georgia Prevention Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-3710.
The influence of sociodemographic factors on the initiation of
breast-feeding was evaluated in a triethnic population from Galveston, Tex.
Breast-feeding rates were 44.3% among Anglo-Americans, 13.5% among blacks,
and 26.6% among Mexican-Americans. Mexican ethnicity, education levels
among Anglo-Americans, and marital status were associated with the
initiation of breast-feeding. Odds ratios for breast-feeding were 1.94 (95%
confidence interval, 1.10 to 3.43) times higher in Mexican-American
compared with black women, and 1.94 (95% confidence interval, 1.34 to 2.83)
times higher in married than unmarried women. Anglo-American ethnicity and
education, as main effects, were not significantly associated with
breast-feeding, but their interaction was. Among Anglo-American women (in
comparison with black women), the odds ratios of breast-feeding increased
with education level, ranging from 1.84 for those with less than an eighth
grade education to 7.46 for those with some college. In contrast to recent
findings suggesting that education was more important than ethnicity in
predicting breast-feeding, the odds of breast-feeding among Anglo-American
compared with black women depended on the level of maternal education, but
the odds of breast-feeding for Mexican-American vs black women did not
depend on education.
