The Effects of exclusive breastfeeding on child health in Chad: evidence from national representative survey data

Abstract

Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure the health of the infant, but there is still debate surrounding the subject in many African countries, including Chad. Non-exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life is responsible for 1.4 million deaths and 10% of the burden of disease in children under 5. This study aims to examine how EBF practice affects children's health in Chad. The data for this study is from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2019) for Chad, which covered a sample of 2229 children under six months of age. Binary logistic regression was employed to predict the effect of exclusive breastfeeding practices on both infant morbidities and nutritional adverse outcomes. The results showed that EBF was significantly associated with a reduced occurrence of diarrhea and fever: children who were exclusively breastfed were 33% and 24% less likely to suffer from diarrhea and fever, respectively, compared to those who were not exclusively breastfed. However, there was no significant association between EBF and the incidence of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) or the child's nutritional status. This suggests that EBF may be protective against these two common illnesses in young children, but further research is needed to determine if there is a definitive link between EBF and ARI or a child's nutritional status in Chad.