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January 11, 2021

Monitoring Breastfeeding Indicators in High-Income Countries: Levels, Trends and Challenges

Ksenia-makagonova from Unsplash

Monitoring indicators of breastfeeding practices is important to protect and evaluate the progress of breastfeeding promotion efforts. However, high-income countries lack standardized methodology to monitor their indicators. Therefore, in this manuscript we aimed to update and summarize nationally representative annual estimates of breastfeeding indicators in high-income countries and to describe methodological issues pertaining to the data sources used. A review was conducted through population-based surveys with nationally representative samples or health reports from nationally representative administrative data of electronic surveys or medical records. Methodological aspects and rates of all breastfeeding indicators available were summarized by country. Data from 51 out of 82 high-income countries were identified. Overall, the data were obtained through surveys (n=32) or administrative data (n=19). Seventy-one percent of countries have updated their indicators since 2015. Ever breastfed was the indicator most frequently reported, with a median of 91%. By 6 months of age, the median equals 18% for exclusive and 45% for any breastfeeding. At 12 months, the median of continued breastfeeding decreased to 29%. The manuscript also presents the estimation of the annual growth rate for the main breastfeeding indicators for each country with available data. A full version of the paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13137