Application of a Statistical Model to Biological Data Analysis: Exclusive Breastfeeding

Problem statement: Breastfeeding is of utmost importance in the maternal life of a woman, particularly exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life supports optimal growth and development during infancy and reduces the risk of obliterating diseases and problems. Many probability distributions were proposed to model such data such as the mixed Poisson distributions. However, the estimation methodologies based on such mixed Poisson distributions may be complicated and may not yield consistent and efficient regression estimates. Approach: In this study, we proposed a negative-binomial regression model to analyze the local practices of exclusive breastfeeding and factors affecting this practice. Results: The estimation of parameters is carried out using a quasi-likelihood estimation technique based on a marginal approach via Newton-Raphson iterative procedure. Conclusion: The negative binomial distribution is applied on a sample of data on infant feeding practices in 2006 and has yielded reliable estimates of the regression and over-dispersion parameters.