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Preventive health behaviours among parents of infants aged four months
Insights
Many new mothers do not consistently practice recommended infant health behaviors like breastfeeding and safe travel. Lower education and public insurance were linked to fewer healthy practices.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatrics
- Maternal and Child Health
Background:
- Six key preventive health behaviors are known to reduce infant mortality and morbidity.
- These behaviors include breastfeeding, appropriate introduction of solids, immunizations, safe infant transport, regular health checks, and avoidance of maternal smoking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of recommended infant preventive health behaviors among primiparous women.
- To explore associations between these behaviors and demographic factors.
Main Methods:
- Survey of 191 primiparous women four months postpartum.
- Data collected on six key preventive health behaviors.
- Logistic regression analysis to identify associations with demographic variables.
Main Results:
- Significant proportions of mothers did not adhere to recommendations: 39% stopped breastfeeding by 4 months, 35% introduced solids early, 35% inconsistently used baby capsules, 25% missed health checks, and 22% smoked.
- 48% practiced four or fewer, and 21% practiced three or fewer of the six recommended behaviors.
- Performing three or fewer behaviors was associated with lower education, public health insurance, and being born outside Australia.
Conclusions:
- Adherence to recommended infant preventive health behaviors is suboptimal among the studied population.
- Socioeconomic and demographic factors, including education level and insurance status, are significantly associated with the adoption of these crucial health practices.
Abstract:
Six preventive health behaviours have been frequently identified as having the potential to reduce mortality and morbidity during infancy: breast-feeding until the age of six months; no solid food until after four months of age; immunisation against whooping cough, diphtheria, poliomyelitis and tetanus; the use of a baby capsule to restrain the infant when travelling in a motor vehicle; regular attendance at a health care provider for preventive health checks; and no maternal smoking. This study surveyed 191 primiparous women four months after the birth of their babies to explore the proportion of parents who perform the recommended preventive health behaviours and the association among the behaviours. Thirty-nine per cent of the women reported that they were no longer breast-feeding by the time their infant was four months old; 35 per cent had introduced solids before 16 weeks of age; 35 per cent did not always use a baby capsule when travelling with their baby in their car, 25 per cent did not regularly attend the early childhood health centres and 22 per cent smoked. Forty-eight per cent of the sample were performing four or fewer of the six preventive health behaviours and 21 per cent were performing three or fewer. The relationship between performing each preventive health behaviour and a range of demographic variables was investigated. A logistic regression indicated that performing three or fewer of the health behaviours was associated with lower levels of education, having public health insurance and being born in a country other than Australia.