Relationship of breastfeeding self-efficacy with quality of life in Iranian breastfeeding mothers

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the importance of breastfeeding, we decided to conduct a study to examine the relationship between breastfeeding self-efficacy and quality of life.

Materials and methods: This study was a cross-sectional study, which was carried out on 547 breastfeeding mothers that had 2–6 months old infants. The participants were selected randomly, and the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, Dennis’ breastfeeding self-efficacy scale, and WHO’s Quality of Life (WHOQOL) questionnaire were completed through interview. The multivariate linear regression model was used for data analysis.

Findings: The means (standard deviations) of breastfeeding self-efficacy score and quality of life score were 134.5 (13.3) and 67.7 (13.7), respectively. Quality of life and all of its dimensions were directly and significantly related to breastfeeding self-efficacy. According to the results of multivariate linear regression analysis, there was a relationship between breastfeeding self-efficacy and the following variables: environmental dimension of quality of life, education, spouse’s age, spouse’s job, average duration of previous breastfeeding period and receiving breastfeeding training.

Discussion and conclusion: Findings showed that there is direct and significant relationship between breastfeeding self-efficacy and quality of life. Moreover, it seems that the development of appropriate training programs is necessary for improving the quality of life of pregnant women, as it consequently enhances breastfeeding self-efficacy.

Keywords:

• Breastfeeding
• breastfeeding self-efficacy
• quality of life

Acknowledgements

This study was part of a MS thesis, which was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (code: TBZMED.REC.1394.166). We thank all of the breastfeeding mothers who participated in this research as well as the staff of health centers of Falavarjan County, who aided us in conducting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We hereby express our gratitude to the research deputy of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for their financial support for this research.