Reported Breastfeeding Rates in the Asia-Pacific Region

摘要

Abstract: Breastfeeding should be promoted widely to improve health across Asia. In the Western Pacific Region breastfeedingnprevalence is considered suboptimal, however, there is no consensus on the actual level. This review comparednbreastfeeding rates as reported to the Western Pacific Region of WHO with the rates obtained from other research organizations.nThere was considerable variability observed between the different methods of data collection. For example, thenWHO and UNICEF data from the Western Pacific Region which pools information mainly from national and regionalnsurvey that are cross-sectional in nature, reported the exclusive breastfeedingrate in infants less than six months of age tonbe 56% in China and 41% in Japan. Whereas, studies undertaken by the Curtin School of Public Health which have limitednsample sizes but all use cohort methodology, reported the rate of exclusive breastfeeding at six months to be 6% innChina and 15% in Japan. The large discrepancies among results indicate that representative, accurate and reproduciblendatais required. This implies the use of standard WHO definitions of categories of breastfeeding and a combination of routinensurveillance and cohort studies in sentinel districts. Obtaining reliable data on infant feeding in the Asia-Pacific willnhighlight areas of focus, target interventions more appropriately and assist health professionals and parents to continuenadvocating for improved breastfeeding outcomes.