Objective: Using infant and child feeding index (ICFI) to evaluate the relationship between infant feeding and physical development indicators in rural areas of Lhasa.
Methods: In July and August 2010 in the rural areas of Lhasa, the multi-stage cluster random sampling method was adopted to select 540 Tibetan children who were between 6 to 35 months of age. There were 70, 79 and 391 cases in 6 to 8, 9 to 11 and 12 to 35-month-old group respectively. The basic status of infants, information about breastfeeding and complementary feeding were collected by using designed questionnaires. Their height and weight were measured to calculate the children's weight for age Z-score (WAZ), height for age Z-score (HAZ) and weight for height Z-score (WHZ) and assess feeding index score (out of 17 scores) and analyze the relationship between feeding index and HAZ, WAZ and WHZ.
Results: The mean ICFI score of 540 cases was 8.90 ± 2.82.It was 6.84 ± 3.16, 8.16 ± 2.78 and 9.41 ± 2.55 for 6 to 8, 9 to 11 and 12 to 35-month-old infants respectively. There was significant difference between the different month group (F = 30.99, P < 0.05).For the three month groups, the scores of WAZ were 0.10 ± 1.18, -0.09 ± 1.20 and -0.38 ± 0.96; HAZ were -0.60 ± 1.68, -1.02 ± 1.72 and -1.30 ± 1.30; WHZ were 0.62 ± 1.23, 0.69 ± 0.96 and 0.43 ± 0.95 respectively. The ICFI scores of 9 to 11, 12 to 35 and 6 to 35-month-old infants were positively correlated with HAZ (correlation coefficients were 0.25,0.12 and 0.09 respectively, all P values <0.05). There was no correlation with WAZ (correlation coefficients were 0.15,0.08 and 0.03 respectively, all P values >0.05) and WHZ (correlation coefficients were -0.08, -0.02, and -0.07 respectively, all P values >0.05). There were no correlation between ICFI score with HAZ, WAZ and WHZ for 6 to 8 month-old infants (correlation coefficient were 0.06,0.16 and -0.07 respectively, all P values >0.05).
Conclusion: To some extent, the feeding index can effectively reflect the growth status of these infants and can serve as a comprehensive assessment of feeding situations among Tibetan children in rural areas of Lhasa.