Situation of Infant and Young Child Food Marketing in Public Hospitals

Abstract

Appropriate information about breastfeeding is important for building mother’s knowledge and attitude which would impact mother’s decision on infant feeding. Medical staff are potential sources of information for mothers, and their support would influences on mother’s decision toward breastfeeding. At the same time, however, health facilities could be a channel to promote the use of breast-milk substitutes. This study aimed to explore the situation of inappropriate promotion of breast-milk substitutes in public hospitals and explore the channel of information that mothers access to information about both breastfeeding and breast-milk substitute. It was conducted as a cross-sectional study collecting data through face-to-face questionnaire survey with 924 postpartum mothers and in-depth interview with 74 health personnel working at antinatal clinics, labour rooms, post partum wards and well-baby clinics of health facilities in 5 regions of Thailand. The result showed that there was inappropriate promotion of breast-milk substitute occurred in all level of public hospitals. The most common promotion activities were providing gifts to health personals, providing sponsorship for health personnel to attend academic conferences, and providing samples of infant formula, follow-on formula and growing-up milk to hospitals. In terms of channel of information, majority of mothers and family members accessed to information about breastfeeding through health personal. On the other hand, television was found to be the best way to promote information about the formula.