Publication:

Exclusive breastfeeding knowledge and attitude among nursing students in Beni-Suef

Background Previous research conclude small amount of exclusive breastfeeding among the mothers of Egypt and reflect the obvious requirement for appropriate approaches to improve exclusive breastfeeding. The study objective was to evaluate the exclusive breastfeeding attitudes and knowledge among students of nursing in Beni-Suef, Egypt.

Methods A cross-sectional study was performed among 800 undergraduate students in the Faculty of Nursing at Beni-Suef University; convenience sampling was applied in this study, by anonymous self-administered questionnaire composed of 20 items to evaluate the students' knowledge, 17 items to assess attitudes towards breastfeeding and socio-demographics characteristics questions.

Results Overall the majority of study participants (80.2%) had inadequate knowledge, (54.4%) of the participants has negative attitude towards breastfeeding, a statistically significant association between gender and the score of knowledge, p=0.03. and a statistically significant association was found between the score of knowledge and attitude p=0.001.

Conclusions The conducted study illustrated inadequate knowledge and a negative attitude of undergraduate nursing students of University of Beni- Suef to exclusive breastfeeding.