Maternal education, self-reported illness concepts, health-seeking behaviours and breastfeeding practices of rural Nigerian market women

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study locations on the map of Plateau State, Nigeria.

Map of Plateau State was taken from https://nigeriazipcodes.com/494/plateau-state-zip-code-map/ and inserts included to produce the above Figure.

Table 1. Age and distribution of the studied market women, with respect to relevant characteristics

		Bokkos % (Mean age, Yrs)	Barkin Ladi % (Mean age, Yrs)	Mangu % (Mean age, Yrs)
Age (Years)	≤ 45	60.9 (35.4 ± 7.2)	54.2 (36.0 ± 6.5)	59.6 (35.2 ± 6.6)
	> 45	39.1 (58.3 ± 9.9)	45.8 (58.1 ± 9.1)	40.4 (57.0 ± 8.6)
Duration of formal education (Years)	None	26.3 (57.1 ± 14.3)	29.4 (55.3 ± 13.8)	30.3 (53.6 ± 14.0)
	1–6	28.9 (43.6 ± 9.0)	37.6 (44.8 ± 10.9)	35.9 (44.6 ± 10.4)
	7–12	39.5 (36.3 ± 10.4)	28.0 (39.3 ± 11.6)	32.6 (36.2 ± 9.6)
	>12	5.3 (41.9 ± 13.1)	5.0 (39.9 ± 8.8)	4.4 (37.1 ± 8.7)
No of children	1–3	22.6 (31.8 ± 8.9)	23.6 (38.2 ± 13.5)	24.5 (34.4 ± 10.9)
	4–6	50.8 (44.1 ± 11.2)	44.9 (44.0 ± 10.6)	48.7 (44.4 ± 11.2)
	>6	26.7 (55.3 ± 13.8)	31.5 (55.0 ± 12.3)	26.8 (52.1 ± 12.4)
Family structure	Monogamous	64.7 (41.7 ± 13.8)	70.0 (44.6 ± 13.3)	77.1 (42.6 ± 13.0)
	Polygamous	35.3 (49.0 ± 13.6)	30.0 (49.6 ± 13.4)	22.9 (48.6 ± 12.2)

F = frequency/count; 266 women in Bokkos (mean age 44.4 ± 14.1 years), 343 in Barkin Ladi (mean age 46.1 ± 13.5 years), and 384 in Mangu (mean age 44.0 ± 13.1 years).

Table 2. Breastfeeding practice, illness concepts and health-seeking behaviours (related to infectious diseases) of the studied market women

Factor (% of population)		Age (Yrs)	Education (Yrs)	No of Children	Family structure
Breastfeeding practice	None (2.1)	45.0 ± 11.4	5.1 ± 3.6	7 ± 2	1.4 ± 0.5
	3 mon. (7.3*)	40.7 ± 13.2	6.6 ± 4.7	*5 ± 3	1.3 ± 0.5
	6 mon. (12.9*)	46.1 ± 15.5	5.6 ± 4.7	6 ± 3	1.2 ± 0.4
	> 6 mon. (77.7*)	42.6 ± 12.3	6.7 ± 4.6	5 ± 3	1.2 ± 0.5
Illness concepts	Microbes (99.0)	42.9 ± 12.7	6.5 ± 4.6	5 ± 3	1.2 ± 0.4
	Spirits/Charms (0.6*)	41.3 ± 14.9	6.8 ± 3.8	6 ± 3	1.0 ± 0.0
	Both (0.3*)	*66.5 ± 12.0	*0.0 ± 0.0	7 ± 2	1.0 ± 0.0
Health-seeking behaviour	Hospital (92.4)	42.9 ± 12.9	6.6 ± 4.6	5 ± 3	1.2 ± 0.4
	Chemist (5.8*)	41.4 ± 10.6	6.2 ± 4.3	5 ± 2	1.3 ± 0.4
	Traditional (1.1*)	52.1 ± 15.6	4.7 ± 6.4	5 ± 2	1.0 ± 0.0
	Church (0.6*)	47.0 ± 10.1	5.0 ± 3.5	6 ± 1	1.3 ± 0.5
All subjects		43.0 ± 12.8	6.5 ± 4.6	5.2 ± 2.5	1.2 ± 0.4

Data is for only 620 (62.4%) mothers who reported infections in their family in the month preceding the study. * signifies significant difference for categorical variables using X² or Fisher's exact tests, or for continuous variables using one way ANOVA. Comparisons are made to the first sub-set for each factor. mon. stands for months.

Figure 2. Correlations between length of mothers’ education and some relevant factors in the studied population of mothers.

Note: that 1 represents the right illness concept or HSB (in Figure 2 D&E), while 4 represents exclusive breastfeeding beyond 6 months (in Figure 2 F)