Feeding practices of low birth weight Brazilian infants and associated factors
Naiá Ortelan1, Daniela Almeida Neri2, Maria Helena D'Aquino Benicio1
1Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. Departamento de Nutrição em Saúde Pública. São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
Insights
Low birth weight infants in Brazil show poor complementary feeding, with high ultra-processed food intake and low dietary diversity. Individual and community factors influence these feeding practices, highlighting the need for targeted interventions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health Nutrition
- Maternal and Child Health
Background:
- Complementary feeding practices are crucial for infant development, especially for low birth weight infants.
- Dietary habits established in infancy can have long-term health consequences.
- Understanding factors influencing infant diets is essential for public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize complementary feeding patterns in low birth weight infants.
- To analyze individual and contextual factors affecting the dietary practices of these infants.
- To identify areas for improving infant nutrition in Brazil.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 2,370 low birth weight infants (6-12 months) in Brazil.
- Dietary assessment included dietary diversity (five food groups) and ultra-processed food consumption.
- Multilevel Poisson regression analyzed individual (infant, mother) and contextual (municipal undernutrition) factors.
Main Results:
- 59% of infants consumed ultra-processed foods; only 29% had diverse diets.
- Higher maternal education and employment were linked to increased dietary diversity.
- Younger, multiparous mothers and lower municipal undernutrition rates correlated with higher ultra-processed food consumption.
Conclusions:
- Brazilian low birth weight infants exhibit poor feeding quality, marked by high ultra-processed food intake and low dietary diversity.
- Individual socioeconomic factors and community-level child undernutrition prevalence significantly influence infant feeding quality.
- Effective strategies are needed to promote fresh food consumption and reduce ultra-processed food intake in this vulnerable population.
Objective:
To characterize complementary feeding and to analyze the influence of individual and contextual factors on dietary practices of low birth weight infants.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study included 2,370 low birth weight infants aged 6 to 12 months included in the Breastfeeding Prevalence Survey in Brazilian Municipalities (2008), which covered the 26 state capitals, the Federal District and 37 municipalities. Dietary practices were assessed using two indicators: I) dietary diversity, characterized by the consumption of five food groups: meat, beans, vegetables, fruit and milk; II) consumption of ultra-processed foods, characterized by the ingestion of at least one of the following foods on the day prior to the survey: soda, or processed juice, or cookie, cracker and crisps. The covariates of interest were the socioeconomic characteristics of infants, mothers and health services. The contextual factor was the "municipal prevalence of child undernutrition." The individualized effect of the study factors on outcomes was assessed by multilevel Poisson regression.
Results:
Approximately 59% of infants consumed ultra-processed foods, while 29% had diverse feeding. Mothers living in municipalities with child undernutrition prevalence below 10%, with higher education and working outside the home were more likely to offer dietary diversity. Consumption of ultra-processed foods was higher among infants living in municipalities with child undernutrition prevalence below 10%, whose mothers were younger and multiparous.
Conclusions:
The low prevalence of diverse feeding combined with the high prevalence of ultra-processed food consumption characterizes the low quality of feeding of low birth weight Brazilian infants. Individual and contextual factors impact the feeding quality of this population, suggesting the need for effective strategies to increase the consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods and decrease the consumption of ultra-processed foods by this vulnerable population.
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