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Breast-feeding and child survival in Matlab, Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

M. Shahidullah
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Summary

This study investigates the effect of both total and unsupplemented breast-feeding in conjunction with birth interval on early childhood mortality, using longitudinal data from Matlab, Bangladesh. A discrete hazard model approach shows that it is not the duration of total breast-feeding but the duration of unsupplemented breast-feeding which increases child survival. Unsupplemented breast-feeding appears as such a crucial determinant of early childhood mortality that its effect could not be substantially attenuated even when important demographic and socioeconomic factors were controlled. Each of the covariates—supplementation, previous birth interval and onset of a subsequent conception—has an independent influence on early childhood mortality.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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