A Critical Review of Instruments Measuring Breastfeeding Attitudes, Knowledge, and Social Support.
Corrine S Casal, Ann Lei, Sera L Young and 1 others
PMID 28135474WHAT IT FOUND
No single breastfeeding assessment tool is clearly best.
Choose instruments based on your specific goal: the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale for broad use, or the Breastfeeding Attrition Prediction Tool for identifying early weaning risk. Check if the tool fits your culture.
Key findings
01There is no single best instrument for assessing breastfeeding attitudes, knowledge, or social support; selection depends on the specific purpose and target population.
02The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale has been adapted more than any other tool, but reliability varies and some language may be confusing for certain populations.
03The Breastfeeding Attrition Prediction Tool and its modified version have strong predictive validity for identifying mothers at risk of premature weaning.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a narrative review, not a systematic review or meta-analysis, so the selection of instruments was subject to author judgment. Many original instrument development papers did not fully report validity or reliability data, limiting the ability to compare them rigorously. The review focuses on instruments measuring attitudes, knowledge, and social support, not on tools measuring actual breastfeeding behavior or clinical outcomes directly.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a widely used tool like the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale is automatically valid for your patient population. The review notes that reliability varies across adaptations and that some items may be culturally or linguistically inappropriate, potentially leading to inaccurate assessments of a mother's attitudes or support.