DETERMINANTS OF EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING IN INDONESIA: EVIDENCE FROM THE 2017 INDONESIAN DEMOGRAPHIC HEALTH SURVEY (IDHS)

Exclusive breastfeeding is feeding an infant only with mother’s milk until he/she is six months old. In 2019, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding practices in Indonesia was 67.74%, however, lower rates than the national target of 50% were found in four provinces of Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants of exclusive breastfeeding among children aged under six months in Indonesia. A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from 2017 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). The research independent variables were pre-lacteal feeding, bottle feeding, age, parity, mother’s occupation, mother’s education, wealth index, and breastfeeding initiation while the dependent variable was exclusive breastfeeding. The sample of this study was 742 children aged under six months. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square test. The results showed that the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding was 87.3%. The chi-square analysis revealed that determinants that significantly hindered exclusive breastfeeding practices among Indonesian mothers were bottle-feeding practices (p<0.001), child’s age (p<0.001), and parity (p=0.001). In conclusion, the mother’s role is important to improve knowledge about the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding and bottle-feeding practices.