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Published on: February 19, 2021
Index for measuring child feeding practices
1Department of Foods and Nutrition, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. mrsnandini@rediffmail.com
Insights
A new Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI) was developed to assess complementary feeding (CF) practices. While the ICFI showed good associations with child growth indicators like stunting and underweight, maternal education emerged as a more significant factor in multivariate analysis.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Nutrition Science
- Public Health
Background:
- Complementary feeding (CF) practices are crucial for infant and young child growth.
- Assessing the impact of multiple CF behaviors on child development requires robust indices.
- Existing methods may not holistically capture the complexity of CF practices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI) based on CF practices.
- To evaluate the association between the ICFI and the growth of children aged 6-23 months.
- To identify key factors influencing child nutritional status.
Main Methods:
- A semi-structured interview schedule was used for data collection.
- Information was gathered from 204 children in urban Vadodara, including slum and clinic populations.
- Child growth was assessed using Height-for-Age Z score (HAZ), Weight-for-Age Z score (WAZ), and Weight-for-Height Z score (WHZ).
Main Results:
- High prevalence of stunting (50.5%) and underweight (25.5%) was observed; wasting was low (3%).
- Positive CF practices were significantly associated with HAZ and WAZ (p<0.01), but not WHZ.
- The ICFI demonstrated good associations with HAZ and WAZ, but not WHZ. Maternal education was the most significant factor in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions:
- The developed ICFI offers a more holistic assessment of CF practices compared to individual behaviors.
- Further research is needed to refine composite indices for monitoring and advocacy in complementary feeding.
- Maternal education is a critical factor influencing child nutritional status and should be considered in interventions.
Objective:
The present investigation was undertaken with the objective of creating an Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI) from a set of complementary feeding (CF) practices and to determine its association with growth of infants and young children (6-23 months).
Methods:
A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect information for 204 children from one large slum (n=104) and two private pediatric clinics (n=100) of urban Vadodara.
Results:
Results revealed that about half (50.5%) of the children were stunted Ht for Age Z score (HAZ<-2SD), nearly one-fourth (25.5%) were underweight Wt for Age Z score (WAZ<-2SD), but wasting (WHZ Wt for Ht Z score<-2SD) was low (3%). Significant associations were revealed between almost all positive CF practices and nutritional status of the children as measured by HAZ and WAZ (p<0.01), but not with WHZ. Good associations were revealed between ICFI and HAZ and WAZ, but not with WHZ. On multivariate analysis of factors affecting the HAZ, WAZ and WHZ scores, ICFI was not found to be significant whereas maternal education was the most significant factor, which was also found to be associated significantly with ICFI.
Conclusion:
It is concluded that the composite index in its present form can reflect the CF practices more holistically than just one or few behaviors studied separately. More research is needed in the direction of constituting a composite index which can then be used for research, monitoring, evaluation and much needed advocacy for complementary feeding.
