Abstract:
Background: Nutrition experts recommend optimal dietary intake during lactation to
meet the nutritional requirement of infants. Religious and cultural factors are usually
found to have substantial influence maternal dietary intake. It is plausible to consider
fasting during this period as important factor to hinder lactation quantity and quality.
However, many nursing mothers fast during Ramadan and continue breast feeding.
Objective: To assess the magnitude of Fasting during Ramadan and associated
factors among Muslim lactating mothers, in public health centers of Jimma town,
Oromia, South west Ethiopia, 2021.
Methods: Facility based cross -sectional study was conducted in Jimma town from
January1 to July 30, 2021. Structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from
375 lactating mothers selected consecutively. Epi data 3.1 was used for data entry and
SPSS version 20 was used for analysis. The descriptive statistics was employed first.
After bivariate; Binary logistics regression was used, those with p-value ≤0.25 was
entered in to multiple Logistic regression, to identify independent predictors of
fasting. AOR was used to assess the magnitude of association while, 95% CI and
p-value ≤ 0.05 was used to assess the significancy of association.
