BackgroundWorld Health Organization (WHO) recommends timely initiation of breastfeeding after birth and only feeding breast milk to infants during the first 6 months of life. It was estimated that exclusive breastfeeding can reduce infant deaths by 13%. The practice of exclusive breastfeeding is suboptimal in many parts of Ethiopia to a varied extent. Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding practice and the proportion of its practice was not well documented in Offa district. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the determinants of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life in Offa district, Southern Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 396 mothers of infants younger than 6 months using random sampling. Data were collected from mothers of the infants by trained interviewers. Exclusive breastfeeding was measured by the history of infant feeding in the prior 24 h. Pretested and structured questionnaires adopted from standard questionnaires and Ethiopia linkages modules were used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors significantly influencing exclusive breastfeeding practice.ResultsBased on findings of this study of 396 participants, the proportion of exclusive breastfeeding was 78.0% and awareness of exclusive breastfeeding and bottle feeding were 85.6 and 6.1% respectively. About 6% of infants were given prelacteal feeds. The number of infants fed cow milk was 12.9%, formula 7.8%, water 8.5%, fruits and semisolids 1.5%, over 24 h prior to the survey. The initiation of breastfeeding within one h (AOR 2.2; 95% CI 1.1, 4.27), attending formal education (AOR 4; 95% CI 2.20, 7.25), having an awareness on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding (AOR 6; 95% CI 3.10, 11.70) and knowledge of colostrum feeding (AOR 2.1; 95% CI 1.11, 4.27) had a statistically significant association with exclusive breastfeeding in the study area.ConclusionsThe practice of exclusive breastfeeding as well as awareness was worthy in Offa district. Additionally the proportion of bottle feeding use was small. However, feeding other than breast milk was associated with the perception that breast milk alone was insufficient for their child. Strategies on promoting exclusive breastfeeding practice must focus on strengthening women’s education and awareness creation activities further.

Background: Subsistence farming in West Abaya district is sited in an area prone to drought. Thus, poor food security is a principal concern. But, this has been less documented. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of household food insecurity and identify associated factors in West Abaya district, Southern Ethiopia, 2015.Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was done on 779 households from February to March, 2015. Out of 24 kebeles (lowest administrative units) in the district, 9 kebeles were selected randomly. Then from 9 kebeles, 15 'gots' were selected using probability proportionate to size. Gots are villages in a kebele where a kebele may have up to three of them. Data were collected using pretested structured questionnaire by trained data collectors. The study used a 'Household Food Insecurity Access Scale' to measure access component of household food insecurity. Data were entered in Epi Info version 3.5.4 and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for cleaning and analysis. Binary and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with food insecurity in the study area. Results:The overall prevalence of household food insecurity was 38.1% in the study district. Households headed by female were more likely to be food insecure than households headed by males 'AOR = 2.1 (95% CI 1.15, 3.74). ' Households headed by persons aged >65 years were 6.5 times more likely of being food insecure compared to household headed by persons aged 18-44 years, 'AOR = 6.51 (95% CI 3.25, 13). ' The odds of households with larger family size to be food insecure was higher than households with smaller family sizes 'AOR = 2.4 (95% CI 1.7, 3.5). ' Owning smaller farm land increases the risk of being food insecure nearly by 2 times compared to larger land size 'AOR = 1.7 (95% CI 1.12, 2.7). ' Besides, households headed by uncoupled were likely to be food insecure than married 'AOR = 2.6 (95% CI 1.53-4.26). 'Conclusions: This study revealed that household food insecurity was considerable in the study area. Hence, proper attention should be given to increase food production and productivity of the farmers by improving access to farm land, strengthening the efforts of family planning and women empowerment.