| Objective To explore the physical development of breast fed infants and describe the growth rate of urban and rural infants in Hefei city. The study prepared to provide the basic data for the establishment of infant growth trajectory model.Method A stratified sample of the normal term birth newborns between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008 was recruited from 4 hospitals and 5 rural community health centers. The total of 361 eligible newborns were included in our studies as their parents were with good compliance and willing to breast feeding. Pregnancy information, demographic data and newborn information were collected. A follow-up survey was conducted every 7 days in the neonatal period and every month after the neonatal period, to gather the weight, height, head circumference, breast fed, introduction of solid food and illness information of these infants. At last, a total of 306 breastfed infants (166 in urban, 140 in rural) completed the follow-up. With the WHO child growth development reference value, we applied standard deviation difference method to evaluate the infant physical development level. T tests and x2 tests were applied to compare the infant base information in both follow-up group and loss group. The infant base information and physical development index were also compared in urban follow-up group and rural follow-up group. The linear regression was conducted to analyze the influencing factor of weight and height.Result At 12 months, the proportion of infants stopping breastfeeding in city group(81.3%) was obviously higher than in the rural group(52.9%). The difference was statistically significant. The age about infant beginning to complementary feeding most concentrated in 4-6 months, 75.3% of the city group of infants began complementary feeding at four months, earlier than rural group.There was no significant difference on almost each month weight between urban and rural group. But each month infant body height in urban was higher than in rural, the difference was statistically significant. The head circumference of female infants in urban follow-up group was greater than that in rural before 7 months age, the difference was statistically significant. However when aimed to male infants or female infants exceeding 7 months age, all of the differences were not statistically significant. There was no difference on most month age weight, height and head circumference increment between urban and rural group.The average body weight was higher than WHO standards in the urban, rural male and female infants whose age are 2 to 12 months, although there was no significant difference in birth and 1month age compared with the WHO standards. Male infant's average body length was higher than WHO standards. Body length was one standard deviation higher than WHO standards among infants during 2 to 12 months-old. Whereas, it was slightly lower than the WHO standards in rural male infants before 7 months- old, and the average body length was all higher than the WHO standards. Average body length was almost one standard deviation higher than WHO standards in urban female infants in every months-old; it was slightly lower than the WHO standards in rural female infants when 1 month-old, while body lengths were all higher than the WHO standards in other months. The average head circumference of infants in both urban and rural areas were slightly higher than the WHO standards in every mouths old, especially it was more significant in urban infants. Urban and rural areas, gender, birth weight, gestational age at birth, mother and father height were the independent influencing factors of infant length growth, while gender, birth weight, ablactating months were the independent influencing factors of infant weight growth. Conclusion The height, but not weight or head circumference of urban breast fed infants was superior to rural breast fed infants in hefei city. The weight, height and head circumference of breast fed infants were higher than WHO standard. The infant weight were affected by sex, birth weight, ablactating month, and the infant length were affected by the urban-rural, gender, birth weight, gestational age at birth, parent's height factors. |
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