Knowledge and Attitudes of Female University Students in
Sharjah about Breast Feeding
Authors:

Dr Noura Al suwaidi, Dr Najla Sajwani
The Ministry Of Health
Sharjah District
United Arab Emirates

Acknowledgement

Many thanks are expressed to:
- Dr Nizar Farjou, Head of Primary Care in Sharjah and in Charge of Arab Board Training Program in Family Medicine in Northern Emirates in UAE, for his continuous support and assistance.
- Dr Abdul Ghaffar Adul Ghafor, assistant under secretary for curative medicine, MOH.
- Mrs. Rani Abraham, M.Pharm, for her help in the statistical analysis.

Abstract
Objectives:
To asses the Knowledge and attitude of female university students in Sharjah about breast feeding.

Research Design and methods:
 A cross sectional study was carried out on a sample of 196 female students who were in Sharjah university hostel during the summer course 2002. A self administered questionnaire was answered by the students to assess their knowledge about important aspects of breast feeding and to know whether they are willing to breast feed in the future.
Results:
Among the 196 students, 79.9% were UAE nationals and 20.1% were non-UAE nationals. The questionnaire contained ten questions assessing the knowledge of the students about the meaning of exclusive breast feeding, the meaning of partial breast feeding, weaning, colostrums, what colostrums is good for, best time to start weaning feeds, best time to start breast feeding, frequency of breast feeding, the duration of each feed and the duration of exclusive breast feeding. Correct answers were given by 8.2%, 57.7%, 3.6%, 39.3%, 51.0%, 20.9%, 49.0%, 46.9%, and 6.6% respectively.

95.4% of the students are willing to breast feed in the future.

There was a statistically significant correlation between being breast fed as n infant and welling to breast feed in the future ( p value of 0.004). Of the group which was not breast fed 81.0% students were willing to breast feed in the future. On the other hand, in the breast fed group 98.2% were willing to breast feed.

A significant correlation was found between having previous educational programs on breast feeding and knowing the meaning of colostrums (50.5% vs. 29.6%). 

Conclusion:
The study showed that female university students in Sharjah were willing to breast feed in future. However their knowledge about breastfeeding needs to be increased by future educational programs.