The prevalence and characteristics associated with mother-infant bed-sharing in Klang district, Malaysia

• Main Authors: Tan, K.L., Ghani, S.N., Moy, Foong Ming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Medical Association 2009
• Subjects: R Medicine
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/4522/1/The_prevalence_and_characteristics_associated_with_mother-infant.pdf; http://eprints.um.edu.my/4522/

This was a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence and characteristics of mother-infant bed-sharing practice in Klang district, Malaysia. Data was collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire for a four month period in 2006. A total of 682 mother-infant pairs attending government health clinics were included in the study. Data regarding socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers, information on the infants, bed-sharing and breastfeeding practices were collected. The mean maternal age was 28.4 ± 5.1 years while the mean infant gestational age was 38.8 ± 1.8 weeks. The study showed the prevalence of bed-sharing was 73.5 (95 CI: 70.0, 76.7). In multivariate analysis; area of interview, maternal occupation, family income, breastfeeding and infant birth weight were associated with bed-sharing after adjusted for maternal ethnicity, age, marital status, educational level, parity, infant gender and infant gestational age. In conclusion, bed-sharing is a common practice in Klang district, Malaysia, not specific to ethnicity, but strongly associated with low family income and breastfeeding.