Impact of IYCF Education on Infant Mortality in Aboriginal Population in Australia

Health Promotion
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Title: Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) education and its impact on infant
mortality in Aboriginal population in Australia.
Abstract.
Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) will provide the necessary information through
education required to address breastfeeding problems such as retarded growth and mortality
in Aboriginal women in Australia.
Through this program awareness will be increased on the knowledge, attitude as well as
understanding about breastfeeding among Aboriginal women. It can also be helpful in finding
impact of mother’s education on breastfeeding. Potential problems related to breastfeeding
can be identified through this programme. It can be helpful in improving health and well-
being of entire society.
Background, brief literature and rationale:
Inadequate breast feeding is the most significant reason for approximately 60 % of infant and
child mortality globally. It has been established that two-thirds of the undernutrition children
feature is present in the first year of their life. Children’s growth, development and survival
can be effectively improved by Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in the first six months of their
life. It has been estimated that EBF can reduce children’s mortality by 20 %. EBF has been
proved as the effective preventive strategy for child mortality (Arimond et al., 2008). World
Health Organization (WHO) gave importance to address this issue because inadequate
breastfeeding can negatively influence socioeconomic development and it can augment
poverty. WHO recommended to initiate breastfeeding within first four hours after birth. In
Aboriginal people mortality rate of child is higher and it is at 25 per 1000 live births. In these
Aboriginal people, this mortality rate is still higher in children who received breastfeeding
after 24 hours after birth (McLachlan et al., 2017).
From the studies, it has been demonstrated that only 65 – 75 5 of the women breastfed new-
born in first four hours after their birth (Khan et al., 2014). Educational level of women plays
important role in initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding practice (EBF) and
duration of breastfeeding (Daelmans et al., 2009). However, there is less evidence for
establishing relationship between educational status of Aboriginal women and breastfeeding.
This issue is less addressed because educational status of Aboriginal women is less as
compared to other women.
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Surely, improvement in the educational status of the women in Aboriginal community can be
helpful in improving breastfeeding status and reduction in the mortality rate of infants.
Multiple health and social determinants can influence health and quality of life in Aboriginal
children. It is necessary to explore influence of educational status of Aboriginal women on
breastfeeding and mortality rate of infants and children (Barnes and Rowe, 2013).
Goal :
Aim of this study is to evaluate effect of Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) education
programme on reducing mortality rate in infant and children in Aboriginal community.
Objectives :
Can IYCF education programme in Aboriginal mothers lessen child mortality ?
Is IYCF programme in Aboriginal mothers is cost effective?
What is effectiveness and efficiency of IYCF programme through retired healthcare
professionals?.
Study design:
In this health promotion programme, randomised controlled trial will be implemented. In
randomised controlled trial, subjects get randomised in different groups (Cook et al., 2015).
One group would be intervention group; study group and another group would be without
intervention; control group. Aboriginal women selected in this would be from the low
socioeconomic class. Educational status of these women is low in comparison to the women
in the high socioeconomic class.
Time frame:
Work to be accomplished
Quarter 1
Months
Quarter 2
Months
Quarter 3
Months
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Ethics clearance X
Project set-up X
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Formative research X
Develop intervention X
Develop study instruments X
Pilot study X
Enrolment of study subjects X X X X
Implementation of
intervention X X X X X X X X
Evaluation Surveys X X X X
Follow up of mother &
infants X X X X X X X X
Data entry & cleaning X X X X X X X
Data analysis of trial
Preparation of scientific
papers
Sampling methods:
Sampling method implemented in this study will be purposive sampling method. This
sampling method is based on characteristics of the participants. It is judgemental, selective
and subjective (Palinkas et al., 2015). Data will be collected from the various hospitals in the
Australia.
Inclusion criteria for the women will be:
 Women having first pregnancy,
 Women without complications,
 Women with single fetus,
 In 24 to 28 weeks of gestation,
 Women having phone connectivity,
 Women whom didn’t attended breastfeeding promotion programmes.
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