ABSTRACT
The main objective of this study is to assess the Breastfeeding Duration, Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration and other related factors among children aged less than 5 years old in rural areas of Northern Iran. This is a descriptive cross-sectional conducted on 2520 children aged 6-60 months [male: 1309, female: 1211] chosen by cluster random sampling from 20 out of 118 villages. Data were collected from mothers using a questionnaire. The duration of breastfeeding was computed only for children aged over 24 months old. Breastfeeding duration and Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration were classified based on WHO definition. SPSS Version 16 was used for data analysis. The mean Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration was 5.59 months, while 66.4% of children had exclusive breastfeeding for at least 6 months. The lowest Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration and the highest Breastfeeding Duration were observed among the Turkman ethnic group. Exclusive Breastfeeding duration of at least 5 months was 14.6%, thus the results were significantly higher than in the Turkman ethnic group [p=0.001]. Meanwhile, the results showed that exclusive breastfeeding duration significantly increased with maternal education level [p=0.004]. The study found that the mean breastfeeding duration was 20.6 months, and 89.3% and 74.7% of children were breastfed for at least 18 and 24 months, respectively. A positive correlation was reported between breastfeeding duration and family size, birth order, maternal age and children nutritional status, [p<0.05]. Additionally, lactation period in underweight children was significantly higher than in obese children, [p=0.023]. The study found that two-thirds of children exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life and the mean breastfeeding duration was 20.6 months. While both exclusive breastfeeding duration and breastfeeding duration were influenced by socio-demographic factors in the rural areas of Northern Iran