[Prevalence and determinants of continued breastfeeding beyond 6 months among Algerian women. Evidence for Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys].

Breastfeeding is considered the best nutrition for infants and plays a significant role in a child's growth and development. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, as well as continued breastfeeding when safe and appropriate complementary foods are introduced, up to 2 years of age or beyond. Nonetheless, breastfeeding practices remain sub-optimal in many parts of the world. In this respect, many children have shown not to be breastfed up to 6 months of age or are not breastfed during their first hours of life or are weaned too early. This allows for the use of infant formula, which can be life threatening due to poor hygiene, storage conditions or inappropriate foods. Likewise, breastfeeding rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are lower than the global average. In Algeria, the breastfeeding rate up to 6 months of age is among the lowest in the world according to previous Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS) reports. In addition, by the end of the sixth month, the percentage of children exclusively breastfed is less than 3% and only 23% of children receive breast milk at 22-23 months. The median duration of breast-feeding is 12 weeks. However, the socio-demographic factors associated with this sub-optimal breastfeeding practice are not explored in these reports, as studies and research conducted in this context using other data are few and mostly conducted in limited geographical areas.