Effect of feeding practices on nutritional status of infant and young children residing in urban slums of berhampur: A decision tree approach.

Abstract

Appropriate infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in the early years of life will ensure optimal growth and development of the child. However, many children are not fed in the recommended way. To assess the risk of malnutrition as a result of various feeding practice patterns among the children with the application of the decision tree algorithm. It was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted in the urban slums of Berhampur Municipal Corporation in Ganjam District, Odisha, India, from January to December 2019. Among a sample of 360 children of 6-23 months, nutritional status and feeding practices were determined. Data were analyzed using R version 3.6.1 developed by R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. The effect of IYCF practices on nutritional status was explained with the decision tree method with the use of a Chi-squared automatic interaction detection algorithm. The prevalence of children with early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF), exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), minimum meal frequency (MMF), and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) was 62.2%, 59.7%, 41.9%, and 19.4%, respectively. The prevalence of wasting, stunting, and underweight among the participants was 36.4%, 31.1%, and 35.3%, respectively. The significant factors which classified and predicted wasting were EBF, EIBF, and MDD, for stunting factors were EBF, MMF, and MDD and for underweight, significant factors were EBF, EIBF, and MDD. With the decision tree approach, the probability of malnutrition in relation to various feeding practices patterns can be easily explained to the mothers and health workers as compared to interpreting odds ratio and strict adherence to IYCF guidelines can also be ensured.