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. 2013 Oct 14;8(10):e76111.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076111. eCollection 2013.

A preference based measure of complementary feeding quality: application to the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children

Murthy N Mittinty  1 , Rebecca K Golley, Lisa G Smithers, Laima Brazionis, John W Lynch
Affiliations

A preference based measure of complementary feeding quality: application to the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children

Murthy N Mittinty et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This paper presents the development of the Complementary Feeding Utility Index (CFUI), a composite index aimed to measure adherence to infant feeding guidelines. Through an axiomatic characterization this paper shows the advantages in using the CFUI are the following: it avoids the use of arbitrary cut-offs, and by converting observed diet preferences into utilities, summing the score is meaningful. In addition, as the CFUI is designed to be scored continuously, it allows the transition from intake of beneficial foods (in low quantities) and intake of detrimental foods (in high quantities) to be more subtle. The paper first describes the rationale being the development of the CFUI and then elaborates on the methodology used to develop the CFUI, including the process of selecting the components. The methodology is applied to data collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children to show the advantages of the CFUI over traditional diet index approaches. Unlike traditional approaches, the distribution of the CFUI does not peak towards mean value but distributes evenly towards the tails of the distribution.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. ISO curve for linear averaging in a two dimensional space.
Footnote: J is an individual who score 0.8 and 0.4 on breast feeding and vegetable intake and K scores 0.2 and 1 then the CFI score computed under LA results in 0.6 on the ISO curve.
Figure 2
Figure 2. ISO curve for displaced ideal in a two dimensional space.
Footnote: J is an individual who score 0.8 and 0.4 on breast feeding and vegetable intake and K scores 0.2 and 1 then the CFI score computed under DI results in 0.4 and 0.5 on the ISO curve.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Signalling axiom applied to linear averaging.
Footnote: Six individuals J, K, L, M, N, O whose distance from the line of equality.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Signalling axiom applied to displace ideal.
Footnote: Six individuals J, K, L, M, N, O whose distance from the line of equality.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Comparison of traditional and displaced ideal based scoring of complementary feeding.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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