To describe infant feeding practices and predictors of exclusive breast-feeding among women attending a local Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programme.

Cross-sectional survey. Outcomes included reported infant feeding practices at 3 and 6 months, timing and reasons for introduction of formula. Descriptive statistics, χ2 tests and logistic regression were used describe the sample and explore relationships between variables.

Loudoun County, VA, USA.

A sample of 190 predominantly Hispanic women attending local WIC clinics.

Overall, 84 % of women reported ever breast-feeding and 61 % of infants received formula in the first few days of life. Mothers who reported on infant feeding practices were less likely to exclusively breast-feed (34 v. 45 %) and more likely to provide mixed feeding (50 v. 20 %) at 3 months compared with 6 months, respectively. Significant (P<0·05) predictors of exclusive breast-feeding at 3 months included setting an exclusive breast-feeding goal and completing some high school (compared with completing high school or more). Only education remained a significant predictor of exclusive breast-feeding at 6 months.

A high proportion of women reported giving formula in the first few days of life and many changed from mixed to exclusive breast-feeding or formula by 6 months, suggesting possibly modifiable factors. Further investigation can help drive direct service- as well as policy and systems-based interventions to improve exclusive breast-feeding.

The research question for this study was: Are there within-group disparities in Hispanic women’s knowledge of heart attack and stroke symptomology?

Hispanics constitute the fastest growing group in the US and have surpassed other racial and ethnic groups to become the largest US minority. Hispanics make up about one-third of the US population, and hence are a group of significant interest for health care providers. Few studies have examined heart attack and stroke symptom awareness among adult Hispanic women, a group at high risk for delays in treatment. Research is needed to elucidate their knowledge of warning symptoms for these vascular events.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey data from states using the 2003–2005 Heart and Stroke module were examined by multivariate techniques. To maximize the representativeness of the sample, three years of survey data (2003–2005) were amalgamated into a single dataset. If a given state administered the Heart and Stroke module in multiple years, only the data from the most recent year were included in the merged dataset. In the final analysis, data from 23 states, one territory and the District of Columbia were included in the combined 2003–2005 database. The unweighted sample size for the population of interest for the years 2003–2005 was 3146. For analysis these data were weighted to represent 2 641 024 Hispanic women aged 18 years and older who answered questions about heart attack and stroke symptoms.

Adult Hispanic women earning low scores on the heart attack and stroke knowledge questions were more likely to have less than a high school education, be uninsured, live in a household with an annual income of <$35 000 and not have a primary care provider.

These results suggest that strategies to educate Hispanic women on signs and symptoms of heart attack and stroke might benefit from targeting women in these groups.