Association between maternal education and breast feeding practices in China: a population-based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between maternal education and breast feeding in the Chinese population, with a consideration of household income and health-seeking behaviours. DESIGN: A nationally representative population-based cross-sectional study. SETTING: 77 counties from 12 geographically distinct regions in China. PARTICIPANTS: 10 408 mothers with children from 0 to 12 months of age, aged 15–53 years old (mean: 29.15, SD: 5.11) were classified into primary school or below group (n=781), middle school group (n=3842), high school/vocational school group (n=1990), college or above group (n=3795), according to their highest completed education. OUTCOMES: Five breastfeeding outcomes, including early initiation of breast feeding (EIB), exclusive breast feeding (EBF) under 6 months, predominant breast feeding under 6 months, current breast feeding and children ever breast fed, were calculated based on the standardised questionnaire from the WHO and Wellstart International’s toolkit for monitoring and evaluating breastfeeding activities. RESULTS: The absolute risk of EIB and EBF in the lowest maternal education level was 64.85% and 26.53%, respectively, whereas the absolute risk of EIB and EBF in the highest maternal education level was 77.21% and 14.06%, respectively. A higher level of maternal education was positively associated with EIB (risk ratio (RR): 1.22; 95% CI: 1.12 to 1.30) and was inversely associated with EBF (RR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.38 to 0.88). Stratified by household income, a positive association with EIB was observed only in the group with the highest household income and an inverse association with EBF was found in both low household and high household income groups. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers with a higher education were more likely to initiate early breast feeding when they were also from a high-income household while also being less likely to exclusively breast feed their babies. Routine and successful nursing is crucial for the health of infants and is influenced by maternal education. Future public health interventions to promote breast feeding should consider the issues related to the educational level of mothers.