Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018
Bhattacharjee NV., Schaeffer LE., Hay SI., Lu D., Schipp MF., Lazzar-Atwood A., Donkers KM., Abady GG., Abd-Allah F., Abdelalim A., Abebo ZH., Abejie AN., Abosetugn AE., Abreu LG., Abrigo MRM., Abu-Gharbieh E., Abushouk AI., Adamu AL., Adedeji IA., Adegbosin AE., Adekanmbi V., Adetokunboh OO., Agudelo-Botero M., Aji B., Akinyemi OO., Alamneh AA., Alanezi FM., Alanzi TM., Albright J., Alcalde-Rabanal JE., Alemu BW., Alhassan RK., Ali BA., Ali S., Alinia C., Alipour V., Amit AML., Amugsi DA., Anbesu EW., Ancuceanu R., Anjomshoa M., Ansari F., Antonio CAT., Anvari D., Arabloo J., Arora A., Artanti KD., Asemahagn MA., Asmare WN., Atout MMW., Ausloos M., Awoke N., Quintanilla BPA., Ayanore MA., Aynalem YA., Ayza MA., Azene ZN., Darshan BB., Badiye AD., Baig AA., Bakkannavar SM., Banach M., Banik PC., Bärnighausen TW., Basaleem H., Bayati M., Baye BA., Bedi N., Belay SA., Bhagavathula AS., Bhandari D., Bhardwaj N., Bhardwaj P., Bhutta ZA., Bijani A., Birhan TA., Birihane BM., Bitew ZW., Bohlouli S., Bohluli M., Bojia HA., Boloor A., Brady OJ., Bragazzi NL., Brunoni AR., Budhathoki SS., Nagaraja SB., Butt ZA., Cárdenas R., Castaldelli-Maia JM., Castro F., Cernigliaro A., Charan J., Chatterjee P., Chatterjee S., Chattu VK., Chaturvedi S., Chowdhury MAK., Chu DT., Collison ML.
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)—giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life—is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.