Résumé :
|
[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST uaxOCR0x. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Context Current evidence that breastfeeding is beneficial for infant and child health is based exclusively on observational studies. Potential sources of bias in such studies have led to doubts about the magnitude of these health benefits in industrialized countries. Objective To assess the effects of breastfeeding promotion on breastfeeding duration and exclusivity and gastrointestinal and respiratory infection and atopic eczema among infants. Design The Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT), a cluster-randomized trial conducted June 1996-December 1997 with a 1-year follow-up. Setting Thirty-one maternity hospitals and polyclinics in the Republic of Belarus. Participants A total of 17046 mother-infant pairs consisting of full-term singleton infants weighing at least 2500 g and their healthy mothers who intended to breast-feed, 16 491 (96.7%) of which completed the entire 12 months of follow-up. Interventions Sites were randomly assigned to receive an experimental intervention (n=16) modeled on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative of the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund, which emphasizes health care worker assistance with initiating and maintaining breastfeeding and lactation and postnatal breastfeeding support, or a control intervention (n=15) of continuing usual infant feeding practices and policies. (...)
|