[Poorer countries have more pro-breastfeeding actions than rich countries: ecological study of 98 countries]

This study aimed to verify the association between gross domestic product values - purchasing power parity (GDP PPP) and scores of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) tool. This is an ecological study carried out with 98 low-income (n = 43), middle-income (n = 27), and high-income (n = 28) countries. The evaluation of pro-breastfeeding actions was obtained from the WBTi and the GDP PPP from the World Bank. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the total and each item WBTi scores were estimated. ANOVA and Tukey's test were used to compare the means of the WBTi tool according to the countries' GDP PPP. The association between GDP PPP and total and individual WBTi scores was analyzed by linear regression. Higher WBTi scores were identified for the items health and nutrition care system (item 5: mean = 6.4; SD: ±2.0) and Information Support (item 7: mean = 6.4; SD: ±2.5). The means of the total score and of items 3 (implementation of the code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes), 7 (information support), 9 (infant feeding during emergencies) and 10 (mechanisms of monitoring and evaluating systems) were higher in low- and middle-income countries, while item 4 (maternity protection in the workplace) presented a high mean in high-income countries (p < 0.05). We observed a negative association between GDP PPP and the total tool score (β = -2.67; 95%CI: -5.06; -0.29), item 3 (β = -0.50; 95%CI: -0.91; -0.08), item 7 (β = -0.67; 95%CI: -1.07; -0.27), item 8 (infant feeding and HIV; β = -0.59; 95%CI: -1.07; -0.11), and item 9 (β = -0.91; 95%CI: -1.34; -0.48). We observed a positive association between GDP PPP and item 4 (maternity protection in the workplace; β = 0.63; 95%CI: 0.24; 1.02). Countries with lower GDP PPP presented higher scores of the tool, with the exception of item 4, which had higher scores in countries with higher GDP PPP.