Female College Students Knowledge, Attitude and Future Intention towards Breastfeeding: Implications for Advocacy

Breastfeeding is important for promoting child's health. Since, breastfeeding decisions are made before pregnancy and are strongly influenced by women's knowledge and attitude, it is important to identify knowledge gaps in youth girls.

To assess the knowledge, attitude and future intention regarding infant feeding among female college students in Puducherry, India.

This descriptive study was done among 307 college going female students. Their knowledge, attitude and future intention was assessed using structured questions and Likert's scale. Data were summarized as percentages with 95% confidence interval. Responses to Likert's scale were analyzed using consensus index.

Around 98% (95% CI: 96.5%, 99.6%) and 86.3% (95% CI: 82.5%, 90.2%) knew that breast milk and colostrum respectively is good for the child. However, students had poor knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding, the age of starting supplementation, recommended duration of breastfeeding. Noteworthy, 15% and 38% of them thought that breastfeeding spoils the mother's beauty and interferes with mother's employment respectively. Around 98% (95% CI: 97.0%, 100.0%) wanted to breastfeed their child in future. A high proportion of students, 20.5% (95% CI: 16.0%, 25.0%) wanted to give formula feed before 6 months. Knowledge and future intention to breastfeed was better among 'arts and science' students than engineering students.

The knowledge and attitude of female college students on breastfeeding is good. Almost all students wanted to breastfeed their children in future. However, the study has identified knowledge gaps and misconceptions which need to be stressed during the health education activity to promote optimal breastfeeding practices.