Applying Rank Sum Ratio (RSR) to the Evaluation of Feeding Practices Behaviors, and Its Associations with Infant Health Risk in Rural Lhasa, Tibet

Zhenjie Wang, Shaonong Dang, Yuan Xing, Qiang Li and Hong Yan
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Zhenjie Wang: Institute of Population Research/WHO Collaborating Center on Reproductive Health and Population Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Shaonong Dang: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Yuan Xing: Xi’an Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xi’an 710061, China
Qiang Li: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Hong Yan: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-9

Abstract: To evaluate the status of feeding practices and analyze the association between feeding practice and health status among Tibetan infants, a cross-sectional survey of 386 women with children aged under 24 months was conducted in rural areas surrounding Lhasa, Tibet. All participants were selected using simple random sampling and were interviewed face-to-face by trained interviewers. Mothers were interviewed to collect information on their feeding practices. A feeding practices index was created using the rank sum ratio method. Most of the infants had been or were being breastfed at the time of the interview. The feeding practices index was significantly and inversely associated with the prevalence of acute upper respiratory infection, and the odds ratio for the qualified feeding practices index vs. the non-qualified feeding practices index was 0.43 (95% confidence interval: 0.20–0.94). There were no measurable associations observed between acute upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, and the feeding practices index after controlling for selected factors. The method of rank sum ratio provides a flexible way to evaluate feeding practices and is easy to understand. Furthermore, appropriate infant feeding practices might play a protective role in Tibetan infants’ health.

Keywords: rank sum ratio; feeding practices index; infant health; Tibet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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