Purpose:

To assess the impact of an educational intervention aimed at improving university students’ attitudes towards breastfeeding. The intervention was carried out during the second semester of 2018.

Methodological design:

This is an exploratory study. We used a cross-sectional design to compare attitudes towards breastfeeding determined by the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale between two cohorts of students. The first cohort participated in an educational intervention and the second did not. This scale has been previously validated for the Mexican population.

Results:

Students who participated in the educational intervention showed a more positive attitude towards breastfeeding than students who did not participate.

Research limitations:

The number of students who answered the questionnaire is relatively low compared to the university population; therefore, results cannot be generalized. There may also be unidentified bias in students who answered the questionnaire, and the type of study does not allow us to identify if there was a change of attitude.

Findings:

The participation of students in an educational intervention, that explicitly incorporates content related to breastfeeding into the regular curriculum, can modify their attitude towards breastfeeding. This could have an impact on the decisions they make about breastfeeding later in their lives.

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