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. 2018 Mar;21(4):655-668.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980017002956. Epub 2017 Nov 20.

Systematic review of infant and young child complementary feeding practices in South Asian families: the Pakistan perspective

Logan Manikam  1 , Anika Sharmila  2 , Abina Dharmaratnam  3 , Emma C Alexander  2 , Jia Ying Kuah  2 , Ankita Prasad  2 , Sonia Ahmed  1 , Raghu Lingam  4 , Monica Lakhanpaul  1
Affiliations

Systematic review of infant and young child complementary feeding practices in South Asian families: the Pakistan perspective

Logan Manikam et al. Public Health Nutr. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Suboptimal nutrition among children remains a problem among South Asian (SA) families. Appropriate complementary feeding (CF) practices can greatly reduce this risk. Thus, we undertook a systematic review of studies assessing CF (timing, dietary diversity, meal frequency and influencing factors) in children aged <2 years in Pakistan.

Design: Searches between January 2000 and June 2016 in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Global Health, Web of Science, OVID Maternity & Infant Care, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, BanglaJOL, POPLINE and WHO Global Health Library. Eligibility criteria: primary research on CF practices in SA children aged 0-2 years and/or their families. Search terms: 'children', 'feeding' and 'Asians' with their derivatives. Two researchers undertook study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal (EPPI-Centre Weight of Evidence).

Results: From 45 712 results, seventeen studies were included. Despite adopting the WHO Infant and Young Child Feeding guidelines, suboptimal CF was found in all studies. Nine of fifteen studies assessing timing recorded CF introduced between 6 and 9 months. Five of nine observed dietary diversity across four of seven food groups; and two of four, minimum meal frequency in over 50 % of participants. Influencing factors included lack of CF knowledge, low maternal education, socio-economic status and cultural beliefs.

Conclusions: This is the first systematic review to evaluate CF practices in Pakistan. Campaigns to change health and nutrition behaviour are needed to meet the substantial unmet needs of these children.

Keywords: Child; Complementary feeding; Diet; Infant; Nutrition; Pakistan.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study selection process for the current systematic review (CFP, complementary feeding practices; BF, breast-feeding)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(colour online) Location map of fourteen of the studies included the current systematic review (map courtesy of Google Maps; data © 2017 Google)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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