Backgrounds & Aims: The latest national research achievements studying on Iranian households in 1998-2000 implies that milk and other dairy products are consumed less than the recommended proportions. This research was designed to study the amount of milk consumption and related factors in West Azarbaijan in 2012-2013.

 Materials & Methods: In this cross sectional study, the data were collected by interviews with 650 households selected from three cities (Urmia, Mahabad, Khoy) and 9 rural areas of West Azarbaijan province by cluster systematic method. Demographic status and milk consumption of the households were completed by mothers. The data were analyzed with Chi‑square, t‑test, Anova with MS Access and SPSS software.

 Results: The results indicated that 67% of the households were Azari, 32% Kurdish and only 1% were from other ethnicities. Highest level of education in households' head was elementary or junior high school and their occupations were independent workers. Results implied that each person consumes approximately half of the glass of milk (118 ml). The most widely consumed milk in urban and rural households was bulk milk (62.5%) whose average consumption was 478.6±22.6 ml in urban and 730.4 ± 64.4 ml in rural areas weekly. Milk consumption in Azari households was higher than other ethnicities (P< 0.05) . Results indicated that urban households obtain more subsidized milk (55%) than rural (20%). After cutting the subsidies by the government in 2010, purchasing milk in urban was decreased to half while in rural it was substituted with bulk milk and not changed.

 Conclusion: Most consumed milk in households in West Azarbaijan province was cow bulk milk and their consumption was lower than the suggested amount (2-3 glasses a day). The most important factors in milk consumption were residency location, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Designing and running policies in practical approach to increase milk consumption seems necessary and must be more considered. Solving milk contribution issues and culturalizing the community by media should be in high priorities.

  SOURCE: URMIA MED J 2014: 25(2): 149 ISSN: 1027-3727