Abstract
Introduction: Appropriate complementary foods have been found to provide infants and young children with nutritional needs for their growth and development. In the absence of a randomized control trial (RCT), this study used observational data to evaluate the effect of appropriate complementary feeding practices on the nutritional status of children aged 6–23 months in Malawi using a propensity score matching statistical technique.Methods: Data on 4,722 children aged 6 to 23 months from the 2015–16 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) were analyzed. Appropriate complementary feeding practices were assessed using the core indicators recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and consist of the introduction of complementary feeding, minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet based on a dietary intake during a most recent 24-h period.Results: The prevalence of stunting (height-for-age z-score < −2 SD) was 31.9% (95% CI: 29.3%, 34.6%), wasting (weight-for-height z-score < −2 SD) 3.5% (95% CI: 2.6%, 4.7%) and underweight (weight-for-age z-score < −2 SD) 9.9% (95% CI: 8.4%, 11.8%). Of the 4,722 children, 7.7% (95% CI: 6.9%, 8.5%) were provided appropriate complementary foods. Appropriate complementary feeding practices were found to result in significant decrease in stunting (OR = 0.7, 95% CI: 0.4, 0.95). They also resulted in the decrease of wasting (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.1, 1.7) and underweight (OR = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.2, 1.7).Conclusion: Appropriate complementary feeding practices resulted in a reduction of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children 6 to 23 months of age in Malawi. We recommend the continued provision of appropriate complementary foods to infants and young children to ensure that the diet has adequate nutritional needs for their healthy growth.
Highlights
Appropriate complementary foods have been found to provide infants and young children with nutritional needs for their growth and development
We found that children who were provided appropriate complementary foods resulted in a decrease in stunting, wasting and underweight
To the best of knowledge, this is first study that has estimated the effect of appropriate complementary feeding practices on child growth using observational data by employing quasi-experimental statistical methods such as propensity score matching
Summary
Appropriate complementary foods have been found to provide infants and young children with nutritional needs for their growth and development. In the absence of a randomized control trial (RCT), this study used observational data to evaluate the effect of appropriate complementary feeding practices on the nutritional status of children aged 6–23 months in Malawi using a propensity score matching statistical technique. Undernourished children have their immune system compromised, making them more vulnerable to chronic diseases and infections. Malnutrition levels among children aged under 5 years are high in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) They are too short for their age (stunted) (32%), too thin for their height (wasted) (10%), and too thin for their age (underweight) (15%) [2,3,4]. The results for classification analysis showed that 91.05% of the children were correctly specified to either being appropriately complementary fed or not
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