Background International and national organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, but many women stop earlier. Lay and professional persons can support mothers’ efforts to overcome breastfeeding difficulties. Considering breastfeeding support to comprise emotional support, practical help, and information offered to women who desire to breastfeed (by professionals, family members, and others), we developed and tested a scale to measure it in Japan. Methods A total of 31 items were generated by literature review and from the authors’ clinical experiences. Those items were tested with 243 mothers who visited public health centers in Tokyo for their infant’s health check-up 3 months after birth. Breastfeeding support and infant feeding status were then assessed 5 months after birth. All the data were collected by using self-administered questionnaires. Results On the basis of the results of factor analysis, the number of items was reduced to 11. There were three factors: support from breastfeeding peers and from people in specifically named healthcare professions, practical help, and support from people the mother can rely on to help meet emotional needs and address breastfeeding concerns. Internal-consistency reliability (alpha) of scores on the 11-item scale was 0.83 when measured 3 months postpartum and 0.85 when measured 5 months postpartum. Higher scores on the 11-item scale 3 months postpartum were associated with more breastfeeding exclusivity both at that time (Kruskal–Wallis test, chi-squared = 14.871, df = 3, n = 211, p = 0.002, eta-squared = 0.071) and also 5 months postpartum (Kruskal–Wallis test, chi-squared = 8.556, df = 3, n = 159, p = 0.036, eta-squared = 0.054). Further, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.73 (95% CI [0.57–0.88]), which indicates that scores on the 11-item scale 3 months postpartum may be useful to predict which mothers will be less exclusive in breastfeeding 5 months postpartum. In conclusion, scores on this 11-item scale were reasonably reliable and valid for measuring breastfeeding support provided by lay and professional persons to mothers in Japan. Further research is required to evaluate this scale’s applicability in other settings.

中文翻译：

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母乳喂养支持量表的开发，以衡量非专业人士和专业人士的母乳喂养支持，及其在日本的预测有效性

背景 国际和国家组织建议在生命的前 6 个月进行纯母乳喂养，但许多女性更早停止。非专业人士和专业人士可以支持母亲克服母乳喂养困难的努力。考虑到母乳喂养支持包括情感支持、实际帮助和向希望母乳喂养的女性（由专业人士、家庭成员和其他人）提供的信息，我们开发并测试了一个在日本进行测量的量表。方法通过文献回顾和作者临床经验共产生31个条目。这些项目对 243 名母亲进行了测试，这些母亲在出生 3 个月后到东京的公共卫生中心进行婴儿健康检查。然后在出生后 5 个月评估母乳喂养支持和婴儿喂养状态。所有数据均通过自填问卷收集。结果根据因素分析结果，项目数量减少到11项。包括三个因素：母乳喂养同龄人和特定医疗保健专业人士的支持、实际帮助和母亲可以依赖的人的支持帮助满足情感需求并解决母乳喂养问题。产后 3 个月测量的 11 项量表得分的内部一致性信度 (alpha) 为 0.83，产后 5 个月测量时为 0.85。产后 3 个月的 11 项量表得分越高，母乳喂养的排他性越高（Kruskal-Wallis 检验，卡方 = 14.871，df = 3，n = 211，p = 0.002，eta-squared = 0.071 ) 和产后 5 个月（Kruskal-Wallis 检验，卡方 = 8。556, df = 3, n = 159, p = 0.036, eta-squared = 0.054)。此外，接受者操作特征曲线下面积为 0.73（95% CI [0.57–0.88]），这表明产后 3 个月 11 项量表的分数可能有助于预测哪些母亲在母乳喂养中的排他性较低 5产后几个月。总之，这个 11 项量表的分数对于衡量日本外行和专业人士为母亲提供的母乳喂养支持是相当可靠和有效的。需要进一步的研究来评估该量表在其他环境中的适用性。这表明产后 3 个月 11 项量表的分数可能有助于预测哪些母亲在产后 5 个月的母乳喂养中会较少排他性。总之，这个 11 项量表的分数对于衡量日本外行和专业人士为母亲提供的母乳喂养支持是相当可靠和有效的。需要进一步的研究来评估该量表在其他环境中的适用性。这表明产后 3 个月 11 项量表的分数可能有助于预测哪些母亲在产后 5 个月的母乳喂养中会较少排他性。总之，这个 11 项量表的分数对于衡量日本外行和专业人士为母亲提供的母乳喂养支持是相当可靠和有效的。需要进一步的研究来评估该量表在其他环境中的适用性。