An infant and child feeding index is associated with the nutritional status of 6- to 23-month-old children in rural Burkina Faso.

The measurement of child feeding practices is complex and the relation between the quality of feeding and children's nutritional status is difficult to establish. We examined this relation in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa, using an adapted version of the Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI). A cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of children (n = 2466) aged 6-35 mo in 2002. Feeding practices were assessed through a qualitative 24-h recall. ICFIs were made age specific for children aged 6-11 mo (n = 614), 12-23 mo (n = 987), 24-35 mo (n = 865), and were divided into terciles. The association between height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ), weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ), and ICFIs were examined separately in each age group. Multivariate analyses were performed to control for sociodemographic and economic factors. Adjusted mean HAZ in low, medium, and high categories of ICFI were, respectively, -1.67, -1.53, and -1.21 (P = 0.003) among children aged 6-11 mo; -2.54, -2.24, and -2.11 (P = 0.0002) among children aged 12-23 mo; and -2.18, -2.20, and -2.45 (P = 0.05) among children aged 24-35 mo. There was also a positive association between ICFI and WHZ in children aged 12-23 mo (P = 0.05) but a negative association in children aged 6-11 mo (P = 0.02). Among the components of ICFI, dietary diversity or variety scores and frequency of meals or snacks supported the positive associations with anthropometric indices, except for WHZ in children aged 6-11 mo, whereas breast-feeding exhibited a reverse association among older children. A suitable ICFI and/or some of its components could be used to identify vulnerable age groups and to monitor interventions in similar rural areas of Africa.