Exclusive breastfeeding in Sri Lanka: problems of interpretation of reported rates

doi:10.1186/1746-4358-4-14

International Breastfeeding Journal

Volume 4

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Commentary

Exclusive breastfeeding in Sri Lanka: problems of interpretation of reported rates

Suneth B Agampodi¹ , Thilini C Agampodi¹ and Avanthi de Silva²

¹Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Science, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura, Sri Lanka

²Public Health Volunteer Worker, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

author email corresponding author email

International Breastfeeding Journal 2009, 4:14doi:10.1186/1746-4358-4-14


Published:	26 November 2009

Abstract

Accurate interpretation of reported breastfeeding rates is essential in understanding the true picture of a country's breastfeeding status. In Sri Lanka, where the reported exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate among infants aged from 0 to 5 months is 75%, accurate understanding of this rate is of the utmost importance. The danger of misinterpreting the data and assuming that Sri Lanka has achieved a high EBF rate is that health workers begin to believe that no further effort should be made in this area. This is very dangerous as the potential to further improve rates of EBF will not be addressed. We discuss the interpretation of survey data and various definitions used in the relevant literature. We strongly recommend that interpretation of EBF rates should be done only after careful evaluation of the definitions and survey methods used.