Comparison of knowledge and practice of breastfeeding among mothers of children below 2 years with and without pneumonia

Background: One of the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality, especially in children under five is Pneumonia.Studies have shown that breastfeeding is associated with reduced risk of pneumonia.Objectives: To assess the relationship between knowledge and practice of mothers about breastfeeding and pneumonia among children below 2 years.Material and Methods: A casecontrol study was carried out at Sir Salimullah Medical College & Mitford Hospital from January 2016 to October 2017.38 cases and 38 controls were selected by convenience sampling according to the inclusion criteria.The interview was taken face-to-face through a structured questionnaire.Data analysis has been done by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20.Results: In this study among cases 8(21.1%) and among controls, 3(7.87%) were not currently breastfeeding their child, the difference was statistically significant (p value 0.04), with an odd ratio of 4.67 indicates association with development of pneumonia, previous episode of acute respiratory infection was significantly more among children currently non breastfeeding than exclusive breastfeeding.Duration of exclusive breastfeeding, time of initiation of breastfeeding, prelacteal feed, and socio-demographic characteristics do not have any significant difference between groups.Regarding knowledge, most of the mothers had poor knowledge about breastfeeding; case 13(34.2%)and control 20(52.6%),18(47.4%)and 10(26.3%)had fair knowledge among the case and control group, respectively, 7(18.4%)case and 8(21.1%)control group had good knowledge.Conclusion: Pneumonia developed significantly among children who are not currently breastfeeding.Previous episodes of acute respiratory infection were significantly more among children who are currently not breastfeeding than exclusively breastfeeding.There was no significant difference in knowledge about breastfeeding between the both groups.