Attitudes and Barriers to Breastfeeding among Mothers in Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Table 5
Distribution of breastfeeding attitude by sociodemographic characteristics: age, nationality, marital status, education, profession, living, payment, and income.
Characteristic
Category
Attitude to breastfeeding
Test statistic
value
Negative (17–60)
Neutral (61–75)
Positive (76–88)
Total
N
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
Age (years)
20–30
63
53.4
53
44.9
2
1.7
118
100
χ2 (4) = 14.6
0.006
31–40
127
63.8
69
34.7
3
1.5
199
100
More than 40
33
39.8
49
59.0
1
1.2
83
100
Nationality
Saudi
199
56.7
147
41.9
5
1.4
351
100
χ2 (1) = 1.1
0.58
Non-Saudi
24
49.0
24
49.0
1
2.0
49
100
Marital status
Married
206
55.5
159
42.9
6
1.6
371
100
χ2 (1) = 0.53
0.77
Widow/divorced
17
58.6
12
41.4
0
0.0
29
100
Level of education
Before college
34
50.7
33
49.3
0
0.0
67
100
χ2 (4) = 10.4
0.034
Bachelor
153
61.2
93
37.2
4
1.6
250
100
Postgraduate
36
43.4
45
54.2
2
2.4
83
100
Profession
Student
40
48.8
42
51.2
0
0.0
82
100
χ2 (4) = 20.4
<0.001
Employee
157
63.6
86
34.8
4
1.6
247
100
Faculty member
26
36.6
43
60.6
2
2.8
71
100
Living
Own house
92
56.8
67
41.4
3
1.9
162
100
χ2 (6) = 6.5
0.37
Rent
90
60.8
57
38.5
1
0.7
148
100
Large house
22
48.9
22
48.9
1
2.2
45
100
Workplace
19
42.2
25
55.6
1
2.2
45
100
Healthcare payment
Governmental
100
48.1
103
49.5
5
2.4
208
100
χ2 (4) = 12.2
0.016
Private
68
66.0
35
34.0
0
0.0
103
100
Health insurance
55
61.8
33
37.1
1
1.1
89
100
Income
Not enough; borrow
9
45.0
11
55.0
0
0.0
20
100
χ2 (8) = 4.4
0.82
Enough
102
59.3
67
39.0
3
1.7
172
100
Not enough
35
56.5
26
41.9
1
1.6
62
100
Enough and save
49
50.5
46
47.4
2
2.1
97
100
Don’t answer
28
57.1
21
42.9
0
0
49
100
Number of births
One time
50
53.2
43
45.7
1
1.1
94
100
χ2 (8) = 6.2
0.62
Two times
52
57.8
36
40.0
2
2.2
90
100
Three times
44
59.5
28
37.8
2
2.7
74
100
Four times
43
61.4
27
38.6
0
0
70
100
>Four times
34
47.2
37
51.4
1
1.4
72
100
Number of breastfed babies
One baby
57
52.3
52
47.7
0
0
109
100
χ2 (8) = 15.2
0.0.55
Two babies
66
58.4
45
39.8
2
1.8
113
100
Three babies
45
60.8
25
33.8
4
5.4
74
100
Four babies
33
56.9
25
43.1
0
0
58
100
>Four babies
22
47.8
24
52.2
0
0
46
100
223 (55.8%) scored a negative attitude; 171 (%42.7) were neutral; and 6 (1.5%) scored a positive attitude.