Breastfeeding and common childhood diseases in Zambia: does breastfeeding have a protective effect against diarrhea, fever and acute respiratory infections among children in Zambia?

ABSTRACT

Background: This paper aimed at answering two specific questions does breastfeeding reduce the occurrence of ARIs, Fever and Diarrhea in children who are breastfeeding; and is the occurrence of these common childhood diseases affected by duration (period) of breastfeeding? Data source and Method: Secondary analysis of the 2013 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) was applied by using the children recode dataset (ZMKR61FL). Analysis was done at three levels Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate (Binary and Multinomial Logistics regressions). Results: Results in this paper show that breastfeeding does not protect children against Diarrhea (OR 1.3; 1.1-1.4) but does so against Fever and ARIs (OR 0.9; 0.8-1.0). Children whose mothers were employed were more likely to suffer from all the three disease outcomes compared to those not employed (OR Diarrhea 1.2; Fever 1.5; ARIs 1.2). Conclusion: Diarrhea seems to be more pronounced in children who are breastfeeding than those not breastfeeding, especially those breastfed beyond 6 months