Abstract
Integration of infant- and child-feeding index (ICFI) addressing the multidimensional child-feeding practices into one age-specific summary index is gaining importance. This cross-sectional study was aimed at understanding the association between the ICFI and the nutritional status of 259 children, aged 6-23 months, who attended the paediatric outpatient department of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh. The mean length-for-age z-score (LAZ) of children aged 12-23 months was significantly (p < 0.05) higher among those who were at the upper ICFI tercile compared to those who were at the middle or lower ICFI tercile (-2.01 and -3.20 respectively). A significant correlation was found between the ICFI and the LAZ (r = 0.24, p = 0.01 and r = 0.29, p = 0.01) in children aged 6-8-months and 12-23-months. Multivariable analysis, after adjusting for potential confounders, also found a significant association between the ICFI and the LAZ (beta = 0.13, p = 0.03). The predictive capability of the proposed ICFI on nutritional status of children, especially length-for-age, needs to be further evaluated prospectively among healthy children in the community.
Highlights
Malnutrition is a big challenge and is responsible for 50% of deaths of children aged less than five years [1]
This cross-sectional study was conducted among 259 children of either sex attending the paediatric outpatient department (OPD) of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), the largest tertiarylevel teaching hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh
We looked at the associations between the characteristics of the participants and the infantand child-feeding index (ICFI) and between the characteristics of the participants and the nutritional status of the child separately to identify the potential confounders
Summary
Malnutrition is a big challenge and is responsible for 50% of deaths of children aged less than five years (under-five children) [1]. An appropriate tool to determine the overall childfeeding practices is yet to be determined. This is mostly due to the multidimensional nature of feeding practices, which is age-specific [6]. Most studies that assessed the feeding practices and their association with child nutrition and health outcome focused on one of the aspects of feeding [7]. Ruel and Menon played the role of pioneers in constructing an age-specific infantand child-feeding index (ICFI) [9]. They used the demographic and health survey data of five Latin American countries. This index was further applied in some other countries, with some modifications when and where appropriate [7,10,11,12,13]
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