Association of early-term birth and breastfeeding practices with nutritional outcomes in singleton term infants: a multicenter cross-sectional study

Table 3 Association of gestational age and feeding practices with growth and nutritional outcomes in 6785 singleton term infants with normal birth weight (2.5–4.0 kg) in China

	Variables	LAZ	WLZ	MSS (LAZ<-2)	Overweight/obesity (WLZ > 2)	MSAM (WLZ<-2)
	Variables	β (95%CI)	β (95%CI)	OR (95%CI)	OR (95%CI)	OR (95%CI)
< 6 months (n = 3798) ^※	Gestational age
	Full-term	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
	Early-term	-0.14 (-0.19, -0.09) ^***	0.23 (0.16, 0.30) ^***	1.01 (1.00, 1.01) ^*	1.38 (1.05, 1.82) ^*	0.92 (0.45, 1.86)
	Feeding pattern^#
	Exclusive breastfeeding	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
	Mixed feeding	0.02 (-0.04, 0.07)	-0.13 (-0.20, -0.05) ^**	1.01 (1.00, 1.01)	0.88 (0.66, 1.18)	3.73 (1.81, 7.67) ^***
	Exclusive formula-feeding	0.08 (-0.03, 0.19)	-0.18 (-0.34, -0.03) ^*	0.99 (0.98, 1.01)	0.73 (0.39, 1.36)	6.48 (2.20, 19.09) ^**
≥ 6 months (n = 2987)^※	Gestational age
	Full-term	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
	Early-term	0.00 (-0.07, 0.07)	0.13 (0.05, 0.21) ^**	1.00 (0.99, 1.00)	1.38 (1.04, 1.83) ^*	0.94 (0.37, 2.41)
	Feeding pattern^#
	Exclusive breastfeeding	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
	Mixed feeding	0.09 (0.02, 0.16) ^*	0.00 (-0.08, 0.09)	1.00 (0.99, 1.01)	0.86 (0.63, 1.16)	0.65 (0.21, 1.99)
	Exclusive formula-feeding	0.09 (-0.04, 0.22)	-0.10 (-0.26, 0.05)	1.00 (0.98, 1.01)	0.62 (0.33, 1.17)	1.49 (0.33, 6.73)

Abbreviations LAZ, length-for-age Z-score; MSAM, moderate and severe acute malnutrition; MSS, moderate and severe stunting; WLZ, weight-for-length Z-score; CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio; Ref, Reference category
※The models for infants aged < 6 months were adjusted for gender, birth weight, age at visit, ethnicity, gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes mellitus, and parental heights. For infants aged ≥ 6 months, the models were further adjusted for the timing of complementary food introduction in addition to the aforementioned covariates
Level of signifcance: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001
#No statistical differences were observed in the effects of mixed feeding and exclusive formula-feeding on any of the outcomes

ISSN: 1746-4358