Introduction
Early cessation of EBF has the short and long term effect for the welfare of infants including the life-long impacts of poor school performance, reduced productivity, and impaired intellectual development. Objective of the study: the main objective of this study was to compare the performance of CPH model and AFT models in analyzing EBF data in Ethiopia, 2016 EDHS. Specifically, the study aimed to identify the major predictor variables of the duration of EBF based on 2016 EDHS data.
Methodology: The secondary data is obtained from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), 2016. The outcome variable of this study was the duration of EBF in month. To achieve the objective of the study, descriptive survival analysis like the median survival time, Kaplan Meier survival estimate and log-rank test were used to compare the estimated survival probability among different levels of predictor variables at 5 percent significant level. The Cox proportional hazard regression and Accelerated failure time model were fitted and their results were compared using model comparison criterion such as AIC, BIC.
Results: of 1092 interviewed mothers, 15.3 % of them were discontinued EBF and 84.7% of them were exclusively breastfed (censored). The estimated median duration of EBF was 3 months. Based on estimated Kaplan Meier survival curve and log-rank test, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in survivor experience of discontinuing EBF over each duration with respect to place of delivery, maternal education, husband education, mode of delivery and employment status. The fitted CPH and AFT model indicated that mode of delivery, wealth index, and employment status was found as significant predictors of EBF duration. Moreover, comparatively Weibull AFT model performed better in analyzing EBF data. According to the fitted model, mothers who were in poor wealth index category and who gave birth by cesarean shortens the duration of EBF by 16% and 29% respectively. On the other hand, employed mothers were improved the duration of EBF by 26%.
Conclusion: Weibull AFT model is performed better in analyzing EBF data. A mother who was unemployed, poor wealth index, and gave birth by cesarean shortens the duration of EBF than their counterparts. Therefore, special emphasis should be given for mothers who are unemployed, who are economically poor, and give birth by cesarean to improve the duration of EBF.