BackgroundThe early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF), or timely initiation of breastfeeding, is the proportion of children put to the breast within one hour of birth. It is an important strategy for reducing perinatal and infant morbidity and mortality, but it remains under practiced in Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence and the predicting factors associated with EIBF.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was conducted in 634 mothers in Dale Woreda, South Ethiopia. Multistage cluster sampling was used to select participating mothers. EIBF was outcome variable whereas sociodemographic characteristics and knowledge and practice of maternal health service were explanatory variables. A face-to-face interview using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire was done from September 2012 to March 2013. To investigate predicting factors, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done.ResultsA total of 634 mothers of children under 24 months were interviewed. During the time of data collection, 94.3% of the mothers had breastfed. The prevalence of EIBF was 83.7%. Ownership of the house was a significant predicting factor for EIBF. Mothers who lived in rented houses were significantly less likely (60%) to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth compared to mothers who owned their own house: Adjusted odds ratio 0.40 (95% Confidence Interval 0.16, 0.97).ConclusionMore than three-fourths of mothers initiated breastfeeding within an hour. Findings from our study suggest that improving the mother's socioeconomic status as reflected by house ownership, being a significant predictor of EIBF, would have a central role in improving EIBF.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13006-016-0096-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Background Chronic diseases is increasingly becoming one of the most pressing public health concerns in most part of the world, including the Canadian population. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity in the general population based on 14 major chronic diseases and examine associations with lifestyle/behavioral factors. Methods The data source was the 2015–2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS is a cross sectional, complex multi-stage survey based on information collected from 109,659 participants aged 12+, covering all provinces and territories. Multimorbidity was defined as the co-occurrence of two or more chronic diseases within a person. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the key determinants of multimorbidity. Results The prevalence of multimorbidity was 33 %. Adjusting for sociodemographic variables, there was an increased odd of multimorbidity for those having a sedentary lifestyle (AOR = 1.06; CI:1.01–1.11) and being obese (AOR = 1.37; CI:1.32–1.43) or overweight (AOR = 2.65; CI: 2.54–2.76). There were two statistically significant interactions, between sex and smoking, and between immigration status and alcohol intake. Smoking was more strongly associated with multimorbidity in females than males. The association between alcohol intake and multimorbidity was also dependent upon immigration status. Conclusions Given the high prevalence of multimorbidity among the general Canadian population, policy makers and service providers should give more attention to the behavioral/lifestyle factors which significantly predicted multimorbidity. Policy and program efforts that promote a healthy lifestyle should be a priority.

Background In Ethiopia, child undernutrition and anemia are major public health concerns, resulting in increased childhood morbidity and mortality. Despite progress made to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition (especially stunting) from 50% in 2000 to 38% in 2016, little is known about the magnitude and risk factors for concurrent nutritional deficiencies in Ethiopia. Methods Analysis for this study was based on a total sample of 9218 children aged 6–59 months drawn from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) conducted in the year 2016. The study used two outcome variables: Multiple nutrition deficit index formed by combining stunting, underweight, wasting and anemia status; and a concurrent stunting and anemia (CAS) index. Two mixed effect regression models, Poisson and Logistic, were used to identify the key risk factors of the two outcome variables, respectively. Results The proportion of children with stunting (length-for-age), underweight (weight-for-age) and wasting children (weight-for-length) was 38%, 25.2% and 9.4%, respectively. About 58% of the children had anemia. The prevalence of children with concurrent stunting and anemia children was 24.8%. Our results showed that the risks of multiple nutritional problems were determined by a range of individual, household and behavioral factors including: sex of the child, age of the child, birth order, parity, parental education, religion, household wealth index and type of family structure. The proximate variables (hygiene and sanitation score, feeding practice, and child health service utilization score) were also found to exert a strong influence on the risk of multiple nutritional deficiencies. The likelihood of co-occurrence of stunting and anemia was determined by certain individual and household factors, including sex of the child, age of the child, maternal education, household asset based wealth, religion and household hygiene and sanitation. Conclusions This study underscores the importance of improving parental education, household wealth, hygiene and sanitation conditions, promoting feeding practice and child health service utilization. Also, any nutrition sensitive and specific intervention should consider a child’s characteristics such as his/her age, gender and birth order.