Abstract:
Background: The absence of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life is a significant
risk factor for newborn and childhood morbidity and mortality.Despite the fact the formula feeding
has increased dramatically in urban areas, there is limitted scientific evidence available about the
practice of formula feeding and the associated factors in developing countries like Ethiopia,
particularly at Eastern Ethiopia. In order to interervene the situation, it was necessary to assess
actual practice of formula feeding and its factors.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the practice of formula feeding and associated
factors among mothers with children aged from 0-23 months attending EPI service atpublic
health institutions in Chiro town, West Hararghe Zone, Eastern Ethiopia from February 15, 2022
to March 30, 2022.
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 421 mothers
who visiting Chiro Town public health facilities. Structured and pre-tested questionnaire was
used to collect the data. The data was cleaned, coded, entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and
exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the variables
and binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with formula
feeding practice.Odds Ratio with a 95% confidence interval was computed and level of statistical
significance was declared at P-value less than 0.05.
Result: The finding of this study revealed that the overall prevalence of formula feeding practice
among mothers with under two aged children were 40.1 %( 95% CI: 35.6, 44.7). Birth by
caesarian section for index child (AOR =3.00; 95% CI: 1.79, 5.03), employed mothers (AOR
=9.92; 95% CI5.03, 19.55), 0-5 months (AOR = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.21, 0.98) and 6-11 months
(AOR = 0.06; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.14) were negatively associated with formula feeding practice and
no postnatal attendance for index child (AOR = 1.92; 95%CI: 1.09, 3.38) were significantly
associated with formula feeding practice.
Conclusion: Around two-fifth of the mothers were practice formula feeding. Mode of delivery,
employment status, infant age, and PNC attendance were important factors for the practice of
formula feeding. Thus, nutritional intervention through establishing care centers for infants at
working area that targeting employed mothers, with no post natal care and mothers with infants
above the age of 12 months should be instituted.
