engleski

Breastfeeding during wartime in Croatia

Objective. The aims of this epidemiological research into the situation regarding breastfeeding in children up to 5 years of age, in individual regions in Croatia between 1991 and 1996 were: a) to establish the percentage of children who had ceased to be breastfeed or who had not been breastfeed at all; b) to find out the lenght of breastfeeding in a sample of children up to 2 years of age in the regions in question, by regional units in the Republic of Croatia; c) to discover how children are breastfeed (on demend or according to a schedule); d) to compare the lenght of breastfeeding in 2 age groups (the first group up 2 years of age and the second group 2-5 years of age). On the basis of these aims, it was important to eastablish how the evants of the war affected the dynamics of breastfeeding, and if there was any difference in the percentage of children being breastfeed in regions which were directly affected by the war and those which were not. Methods. Data relating to breastfeeding were taken from questionnaire, which was answered by parents of children in the 2 groups: children up to 2 years and children between 2 and 5. The samples included total 757 children up 2 years old. Of these 357(47,2%) were boys and 200 (52,8%) were girls. In the 2-5 years group there were 1.180 children:620 boys (52,5%) and 560 girls (47,5%). In relation to the effects of the war, the Republic of Croatia was divided into 3 strata: the free areas, the front line areas and the liberated areas. For each stratum a random sample selection model was used, and not sample groups, which resulted in greater precision. The SAS System program packet for statistical analysis was used to analyze results and create basic results tables. Results. a) In all the households questioned with children up 2 years 716 children or 94,6% mothers had begun to breastfeed their babies and 41 children or 5,4% had never been fed on mother's milk. The regions in which breastfeeding is practiced most are: free areas of Croatia, Northern Croatia and Istria, Hrvatsko primorje i Gorski kotar. The breastfeeding rate is lowest in the "front-line" areas and then in the "liberated areas", and in Lika and Banovina. Dalmatia is also below the Croatia average. Areas where breastfeeding is more common are those which are more socially and economically developed and those which were not exposed to the war to such a great extent. The regions with a low rate of breastfeeding are those with a poor social status and those directly endangered by the war. There is particularly low breastfeeding rate in the "front-line" areas. b) The average lenght of breastfeeding in Croatia is 3,45 months; the longest is in the "free areas of Croatia (3,7 months) and the shortest in the "front-line"areas at 2,7 months, which is as much as one month less than in the "free areas". The longest period of breastfeeding is in Istria, Hrvatsko primorje and Gorski kotar, which is result of long term work in these regions and especially the inclusion of the city of Rijeka in the international "healthy cities" project. The maternity ward in Rijeka hospital was also the first in the Republic of Croatia to receive the title "Baby Friendly Hospital".

breastfeeding; Croatia; wartime

nije evidentirano