Estimating the population impact of hypothetical breastfeeding interventions in a low-income population in Los Angeles County: An agent-based model

摘要

Background Breastfeeding has clear benefits. Yet, breastfeeding practices fall short of recommendations in low-income populations including participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). To promote breastfeeding, it is important to understand breastfeeding-related behaviors such as initiation and maintenance within the context of a complex societal system. For individual women, making choices about infant feeding (whether to breastfeed or formula-feed a newborn, or when to stop breastfeeding) is a dynamic process involving interactions with health professionals, family, peers and workplaces. Integrating behavioral change theories with systems science tools such as agent-based modeling can help illuminate patterns of breastfeeding behaviors, identify key factors affecting breastfeeding behaviors within this complex dynamic system, and estimate the population impact of hypothetical interventions.