Exclusive breastfeeding practice and associated factors among mothers in northern Nigeria: Probit regression model approach

Objective: Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) is a situation whereby children are given only breast milk in the first 6 months of their life without adding any other foods. This practice drastically reduces the child’s exposure to different illnesses and diseases. However, many studies have used the logistic model and the Chi-square test to identify associated factors of EBF without considering other similar models. Therefore, this study used the Probit model to identify associated factors of EBF in Northern Nigeria.    Methods:  Secondary data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2018 NDHS) were analysed, where 8276 women of reproductive age who lived in Northern Nigeria were included in the study. The main outcome variable was whether the mothers practised EBF or not. The probit model was used to identify the factors associated with EBF, and p< 0.05 was considered statistically significant.  Results: In the North-central, no formal education, primary and secondary education had 0.358, 0.485 and 0.387 decreases in z-score of practising EBF, respectively, compared to those with higher education (p< 0.05). All the variables were significantly associated with EBF in the North-east zone (p>0.05). However, the husband’s or partner’s education had a significant association with EBF in the North-west zone(p<0.05). Conclusion: The probit model identified the educational status of respondents and their husbands to be significantly associated with EBF. Therefore, the education of mothers and their husbands should be given unrelenting attention to increase EBF practices.