Apport de l’éducation sanitaire dans la poursuite de l’allaitement maternel : cohorte ici-ailleurs dans une population tunisienne

The promotion and support of breast-feeding is a global priority with benefits for maternal and infant health, particularly in developing countries. The objective was to test if a specified programme of health professional breast-feeding support affects the initiation and the duration of breast-feeding.

Population and methods

Two troops of children and their mothers were followed compared to the practice of the breast-feeding in two maternal and infantile protection centres in Tunis. The health professionals in the first centre received a strengthening of the formation on this practice with supervision and training, a calendar of follow-up of these children was applied. No additional formation was given to the health professionals in the second centre. The data were seized and analyzed by Epi Info software. The test of Log Rank was used in the analysis of the reliability's Kaplan Mayer survival curves.

Results

The reliability curves of the breast-feeding according to the age showed a statistically significant difference between the two centres. The intermediate duration of the continuation of the breast-feeding was 13 months for the first centre versus five months for the second (p < 10⁻³).The study in logistic regression showed that only the accompaniment of the health professionals was correlated with the continuation of the breast-feeding (RR: 5.16 CI 95%: [3.52–4.93], p < 10⁻³).

Conclusion

The accompaniment of the health professionals would intervene like a direct factor in the maintenance of the breast-feeding.