Abstract
BackgroundRecently, an infant and child feeding index (ICFI) constructed on brief recalls of breastfeeding, feeding frequency and food diversification was assumed to provide long-term prediction about child feeding practices. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the cross-sectional ICFI (CS-ICFI) or longitudinal ICFI (L-ICFI) and child anthropometric indices in downtown Shanghai, China.MethodsThe prospective cohort study included 180 infants aged 5-7 mo with their main caregivers who were visited 3 times every 6 months over 12 months. A CS-ICFI was constructed for each visit by using data on feeding practices based on 24-h and 7-d recalls. An L-ICFI was constructed with use of the 3 CS-ICFIs. The associations between ICFI and length-for-age z score (LAZ), weight-for-age z score (WAZ), and weight-for-length z score (WLZ) were examined. The stability of the CS-ICFI was assessed by using repeatability coefficient (RC).ResultsThe L-ICFI was positively associated with LAZ and WAZ at Visit 3(beta = 0.151, P = 0.040 and beta = 0.173, P = 0.024, respectively). Moreover, the CS-ICFI at Visit 1 was positively associated with LAZ, WAZ and WLZ (beta = 0.160, P = 0.029; beta = 0.191, P = 0.009; beta = 0.176, P = 0.020) at Visit 3, and the CS-ICFI at Visit 3 was also positively associated with LAZ (beta = 0.176, P = 0.016). Stability of the CS-ICFI was shown by the value of 0.14 (95% CI: 0.07, 0.31) of the RC, which differed significantly from 0 (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe ICFI constructed on brief recalls based on cross-sectional studies can be used to evaluate the effects of child feeding practice on child growth.
Highlights
An infant and child feeding index (ICFI) constructed on brief recalls of breastfeeding, feeding frequency and food diversification was assumed to provide long-term prediction about child feeding practices
Because the feeding practices used by caregivers at the time of study were likely to have been followed for a long time, it was assumed that the ICFI constructed by using data collected with a brief recall can provide information about more lasting processes and can be used to evaluate its relationship with linear growth
Loss to follow-up There were no significant differences in mean length-for-age z score (LAZ) (P = 0.217), mean weight-for-age z score (WAZ) (P = 0.346), mean weight-for-length z score (WLZ) (P = 0.689), mean age (P = 0.062), and sex ratio (P = 0.457) of the 29 infants whose caregivers did not complete the questionnaires versus the infants with complete data set at Visit 2
Summary
An infant and child feeding index (ICFI) constructed on brief recalls of breastfeeding, feeding frequency and food diversification was assumed to provide long-term prediction about child feeding practices. Infant and child feeding practices have received increasing attention and further been assessed with the use of a summary index as shown in several studies [2,3,4]. This cross-sectional infant and child feeding index (CS-ICFI) included information on current breastfeeding and bottle feeding, feeding frequency (in the past 24 h), and 24-h or 7-d recalls of food diversification. Because the feeding practices used by caregivers at the time of study were likely to have been followed for a long time, it was assumed that the ICFI constructed by using data collected with a brief recall can provide information about more lasting processes and can be used to evaluate its relationship with linear growth
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