Breast-feeding Performance Index: a composite index to describe overall breast-feeding performance among infants under 6 months of age

ObjectivesTo develop a composite index to describe the overall breast-feeding performance of infants Design, setting and subjectsThe 2003 Demographic and Health Survey was a multi-stage cluster sample survey of 4320 households in Timor-Leste which covered 573 infants aged ResultsExclusive breast-feeding rate was 29.9%. The BPI (mean 4.4, standard deviation 1.77) was categorised as low, average and high according to tertiles. Multivariate analysis indicated that infants from the richest households were 1.70 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04–2.77) times more likely to have ‘low BPI’ than the poorest. Maternal BMI − 2was predictive of poor breast-feeding (odds ratio = 1.79; 95% CI 1.27–2.52). In the ‘low’ BPI group, the incidence of diarrhoea (13.4%) and acute respiratory infections (20.7%) during the previous two weeks was significantly higher than in ‘average’ (4.3 and 9.3%) and ‘high’ BPI groups (4.6 and 5.5%).ConclusionsCreating a composite index to assess the overall breast-feeding performance among infants