Study On The Correlation Between ICFI And Nutrition And The Factors Related Of ICFI In Poor Areas, Hunan

Objectives:To explore the feeding practice and nutritional status of6-24months old infants in poor rural areas of Hunan province, to study the correlation between infant and child feeding index (ICFI) and nutrition, and to provide scientific basis for improving infants and child feeding practice.Methods:1246rural children aged6-24months were successively selected in Yuanling^Longhui and Shimen by multi-stage cluster random sampling. The contents of investigation included questionnaire survey and physical examination. Questionnaire was distributed to get the information of infants and their parents, birth status of children and their feeding practice. Physical examination included hemoglobin content, height and weight of infants. SPSS21.0was used to arrange and analysis data. T test and chi-square test was used on data comparison and univariate analysises, and non-conditional logistic regression models were used to assess the possible determinate factors of feeding practice among6-24months old infants.Results:Breast milk was the first food of104infants (8.3%) and1132cases fed by it. The rate of colostrum feeding was90.9%. In average the children started to intake breast milk in48hours after birth, and stopped feeding breast milk within7.98±3.936months.1241cases (99.6%) added adjuvat food and most people added cereal (including wheaten food, rice, rice noodles, etc). In average they started to add adjuvat food within4.22±2.586months.152cases had fever or diarrhea in the past two weeks.133cases were found to have malnutrition including low birth weight, growth retardation and emaciation. The rate of malnutrition of boy was higher than girl (Χ2=5.740, P=0.017). The incidence of anamia was28.0%. ICFI was not significantly associatied with WAZ、HAZ and WHZ in the 6-8months old group and9-11months old group. There is no significant association between ICFI and WHZ in12-24months old group. However, bivariate analyses showed that ICFI was significantly associated with WAZ (r=0.077) and HAZ (r=0.096) in12-24months old group. There is no significant association between ICFI and anamia in6-8months old group and9-11months old group. But there was correlation between ICFI and anamia in12-24months old group (r=0.159). Children’s gender, mother’s nationality, father’s education and occupation were the possible determinate factors of feeding practice among6-24months old infants (Method=Wald(forward),αin=0.05,αout=0.10)Conclusions:The rate of starting to intake breast milk is high among6-24months old infants in rural poor areas of Hunan. But it is late to start intaking breast milk and early to stop breast feeding. There are unresonalble aspects on adding adjuvet food. The development of specific measures to improve and intervene infant’s nutrition and feeding practice are still in rugent need. The ICFI can reflect the growth situation of partial infants. It also can be used in the comprehensive evaluation on the feeding methods for infants. But the validity of its application needs to be testified.