Breastfeeding

HealthStyles Survey — Breastfeeding Practices: 2000

Data by Year

The HealthStyles survey is one of a pair of linked postal mail surveys sent to a sample of adults aged 18 years and older. It is drawn to be nationally representative of seven U.S. Census Bureau demographic characteristics. The first survey is a consumer survey about general media habits, product use, interests, and lifestyle. The second survey, HealthStyles, focuses on health orientations and practices. This survey has been administered annually since 1995. From 1995 through 2001 it was linked with the DDB Needham LifeStyles consumer survey. Beginning in 2002 it is linked with the Porter Novelli ConsumerStyles survey. HealthStyles is a proprietary database product of Porter Novelli and is licensed by the CDC for audience analysis in health communication planning.

For additional information regarding CDC's involvement in the annual Healthstyles Survey, visit the CDC Office of Communications.

HealthStyles Questions and Data by Year

All items are coded on the likert scale of 1 to 5 from strongly disagree, to moderately disagree, neither disagree nor agree, moderately agree, or strongly agree.

2000 HealthStyles Survey Items

Question	# Analyzed Respondents	Agree	Neither Agree/ Disagree	Disagree
Babies ought to be fed cereal or baby food by the time they are three months old.	2,273	31.1%	37.7%	31.2%
One-year-old children should not be breastfed by their mother.	2,322	30.6%	32.6%	36.8%
A mother can't breastfeed her baby and work or go to school.	2,300	10.4%	11.9%	77.7%
Women commonly have problems making enough milk for their babies.	2,276	12.5%	51.2%	36.3%
Breastfed babies do not feel as close to their fathers and grandparents as bottle fed babies.	2,314	6.5%	24.6%	68.9%
A mother who breastfeeds has to give up too many lifestyle habits like favorite foods, cigarette smoking, and drinking alcohol.	2,296	44.6%	20.3%	35.1%
Breastfeeding is painful to the mother.	2,277	7.6%	28.3%	64.2%
Breastfeeding will tie the mother down and interfere too much with her social life.	2,319	9.0%	18.5%	72.6%
Breastfeeding a baby correctly is hard to learn.	2,295	9.1%	27.4%	63.5%
Breastfed babies cry a lot more than bottle fed babies.	2,261	4.9%	29.0%	66.1%
It is embarrassing for a mother to breastfeed in front of others.	2,254	26.8%	26.6%	46.6%
Breastfeeding will spoil a baby.	2,321	2.8%	12.0%	85.2%