OBJECTIVE
Data from the Nutrition and Health Survey of the Chinese People on 2002 were use to explore the feasibility of creating a composite feeding index and examine the association between feeding practices and growth of infants and young child.
METHODS
The variables used for index were as follows: current breast-feeding, introduction of complementary foods, the past month and feeding frequency. The index was made age specific for 6- to 9-, 9- to 12- and 12- to 24-month-old age groups, age-specific feeding terciles were created to evaluate the association between feeding index and growth.
RESULTS
the socres of feeding practice were different significantly between urban and rural. Bivariate analyses showed that feeding practices were strongly and significantly associated with child growth in China, especially with increasing age, the scores of feeding practices were increasing.
CONCLUSION
The present study showed that better feeding practices were more important for children of lower socioeconomic status, The data available in CNHS data can be used effectively to create a composite child feeding index which could be targeted by nutrition education and behavior change interventions.