title: Association of economic status with breastfeeding rates in Northern Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the breast-feeding condition based on economic status among primary school children and comparison between Turkman and non-Turkman ethnic groups in northern Iran in 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective research study, carried out on 6882 primary school children (4157 = non-Turkman and 2725 = Turkman) from 112 school of urban and villages in the north of Iran. The schools and students were chosen by multistage sampling (cluster and random sampling). Breastfeeding was categorized based on World Health Organization classification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Breast-feeding during the first 6 postpartum months and two postpartum years was found in 5.8 and 57.1% of children. Breast-feeding during the two postpartum years was significantly 12.5% more in Turkman ethnic group than non-Turkman ethnic group (P = 0.001) but breast-feeding only for the first 6 postpartum months was 1.9% in Turkman ethnic group less than in non-Turkman ethnic group (P = 0.002). There was a negative significant association between economic status and breast-feeding during the two postpartum years in both ethnic groups (P = 0.001) and there was more breast feeding in the first 6 postpartum months in Turkman ethnic group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Breast-feeding rate in Turkman ethnic group is more common than non-Turkman ethnic group. There is an inverse relationship between economic status and breast-feeding duration with a considerable trend in Turkman ethnic group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Faculty, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. grveghari@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Veghari
mesh_terms: D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors