Characteristics of Hispanic rural women enrolled in an Interactive Computer based intervention to promote Breastfeeding practices

Background:  Hispanic women are major minority racial group with low breastfeeding rates, high rates of breastfeeding cessation and high rates of formula supplementation within first week of their baby’s lives.

Objective/purpose: Examine study population characteristics of Hispanic rural women enrolled in an interactive, bi-lingual touch screen breastfeeding educational intervention.

Methods:  This 2 year, two group repeated measures quasi-experimental study was conducted during October 2012-September 2014 at Regional West Medical Center (RWMC), a Regional referral hospital in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  Inclusion criteria comprised of Hispanic females aged 15 years and above, who provided consent, and were available for follow-up interviews. Subjects were excluded if they were not of Hispanic origin, had any mental or physical challenge which limited their ability to use the computer-based breastfeeding program, were not available for follow-up, or were involved in other clinical trials related to breastfeeding. Data collection was done during first prenatal visit and follow up data were collected postpartum including: baseline, days 3 and 7, weeks 2 and 6, months 3 and 6, resulting in seven data collection time periods

Results: An interactive, bi-lingual touch screen breastfeeding educational intervention was developed based on combined principles of human centered, behavioral, learning and humanistic theories. A total of 46 Hispanic women receiving care at the Regional West Medical Center were enrolled with 23 individuals each in the intervention or control groups. More than half of participants were single and had 10 to 12 years of education. Less than half of them had ever breastfed their children. At baseline, no differences in knowledge, self-efficacy and intent to breastfeed scores were seen between 2 groups. Significant positive association was seen between self-efficacy and intent to breastfeed.

Discussion/conclusions: Self-efficacy is an important predictor of intent to breastfeed among rural Hispanic women. Evaluation of touch screen breastfeeding educational intervention is ongoing.