Comparative Assessment of Exclusive Breastfeeding Rates From 24-Hour Recall and Since Birth Methods in Southwestern Pennsylvania Using Ecological Momentary Assessment.
Chinwoke Isiguzo, Patricia Documet, Jill R Demirci and 4 others
PMID 37675868WHAT IT FOUND
Asking parents about the last 24 hours gave higher exclusive breastfeeding rates than asking whether they had given only breastmilk since birth, except for allowed medicines, vitamins, or oral rehydration.
The two methods should not be compared as if they measure the same thing.
Key findings
01The 24-hour recall measure produced higher exclusive breastfeeding rates than the since-birth measure at every infant age.
02At 1, 3, and 6 months, 52.2%, 50.9%, and 27.3% were exclusive by 24-hour recall, compared with 35.7%, 25.1%, and 10.1% by since birth.
03The difference between the two methods ranged from 16.5 to 25.7 percentage points.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample had higher income and education than the local birth population, so it may not represent community parents. For 59 cases, a missing breastfeeding answer was filled in from the nearest response within 7 days, which may reduce accuracy, though a sensitivity analysis without imputation gave similar rates. Only the first 6 months postpartum were analysed, although participants were followed up to 1 year. The study compared how two questions classify breastfeeding; it did not test whether either method improves maternal or infant health.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural research support. One author declared membership of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, and the paper states the article does not necessarily represent USPSTF views.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the since birth method is the only accurate measure or that the 24-hour recall is wrong. The paper shows the two methods estimate different things: current exclusivity versus a break in exclusivity at any time since birth. Neither method is perfect.