WHO Infant and Young Child Feeding Indicators and Growth Outcomes
The World Health Organization has developed standardized indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices across diverse populations. This research examines the associations between WHO feeding indicators and child growth outcomes in 14 low-income countries.
Using nationally representative survey data, the study evaluated relationships between feeding indicators including exclusive breastfeeding, dietary diversity, meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet with anthropometric measures of child growth and nutritional status.
Results revealed significant associations between feeding indicators and growth outcomes, with dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet showing the strongest relationships with height-for-age and weight-for-age measures across multiple country contexts.
These findings have important implications for global nutrition policy and program design, supporting the use of WHO feeding indicators as practical tools for monitoring infant and young child nutrition at the population level.