Between October 18–21, this website will move to a new web address (from health.gov to odphp.health.gov). During that time, some functions might not work as expected. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we’re working to make this transition as smooth as possible.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of infants who are breastfed exclusively through age 6 months — MICH‑15 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Immunization Survey - Child (NIS-Child), CDC/NCIRD

Baseline: 24.9 percent of infants born in 2015 were breastfed exclusively through 6 months of age

Target: 42.4 percent

Numerator
Number of caregivers of children born in a cohort year who indicate their child was exclusively breastfed (given nothing but breast milk) through 6 months of age.
Denominator
Number of children aged 19 through 35 months born in the same cohort year.
Target-setting method
Projection
Target-setting method details
Linear trend fitted using weighted least squares and a projection at the 50 percent prediction interval.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective. Using historical data points, a trend line was fitted using weighted least squares, and the trend was projected into the next decade. This method was used because three or more comparable data points were available, the projected value was within the range of possible values, and a projection at the 50 percent prediction interval was selected because no additional information could be used to assess the trend line so the target was based on the projection.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2016 through 2017 National Immunization Surveys:

Numerator:
Was [child] ever breastfed or fed breast milk?
  1. Yes
  2. No
How old was [child's name] when (he/she) was first fed formula?

This next question is about the first thing that [child] was given other than breast milk or formula.
Please include juice, cow's milk, sugar water, baby food, or anything else that [child] may have been given, even water.
How old was [child's name] when (he/she) was first fed anything other than breast milk or formula?

Methodology notes

Using a computer-generated phone list, the National Immunization Survey (NIS) identifies households across the United States with children aged 19-35 months and interviews the person who is most knowledgeable about the child's immunization status (""caregiver""). Because children are 19-35 months of age at the time of the parent interview, each survey year represents children born over three years. To tie breastfeeding rates more closely to the concurrent breastfeeding programs, CDC calculates breastfeeding statistics by year of child's birth (birth cohort) instead of the year in which the participant was surveyed. Because adding the last year of survey data to a birth cohort has little impact on the breastfeeding rates, but delays the release of final data for one year, CDC reports breastfeeding rates by combining data from 2 survey years only starting from 2009 births when the participants were sampled from both landline and cell phones. For example, breastfeeding data for children in the 2015 birth cohort are obtained from NIS 2016 and 2017 survey.

Since 2003, the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at CDC has been publishing breastfeeding statistics on initiation, duration and exclusivity annually. This has been used widely across the country to monitor the breastfeeding progress at both national and state levels.

https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/nis_data/index.htm

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.

1. Because Healthy People 2030 objectives have a desired direction (e.g., increase or decrease), the confidence level of a one-sided prediction interval can be used as an indication of how likely a target will be to achieve based on the historical data and fitted trend.