Objective: To identify factors associated with exclusive breast-feeding and breastfeeding during the first year of life among Norwegian infants. Design: Data on breast-feeding practices were collected by a semi-quantitative FFQ. Setting: In 2006-2007 about 3000 infants were invited to participate in a populationbased prospective cohort study in Norway. Subjects: A total of 1490 mothers/infants participated at both 6 and 12 months of age. Results: Exclusive breast-feeding at 4 months was associated with parental education, parity and geographical region, while exclusive breast-feeding at 5?5 months was associated only with maternal age. At both ages, a negative association with exclusive breast-feeding was observed for maternal smoking. Breast-feeding at 6 months was associated with parental education, maternal age and marital status. Breast-feeding at 12 months was associated with maternal education, maternal age and number of children. At both ages, negative associations with breast-feeding were observed for maternal smoking and descending birth weight. At 12 months, a negative association was also observed for having day care by other than the parents. Conclusions: Even though Norway has an extensive and positive breast-feeding tradition and a maternal leave system that supports the possibility to breast-feed, factors like maternal education, maternal age and maternal smoking are strongly associated with duration of exclusive breast-feeding and breast-feeding. Research to better understand the reasons for inequalities in breast-feeding is needed to facilitate the development of more effective breast-feeding promotion strategies. This again may improve compliance with recommendations and reduce inequalities in infant feeding practices.Keywords Exclusive breast-feeding Breast-feeding Infant feeding practices Adequate nutrition during infancy and early childhood is essential to ensure growth, health and development of children to reach their full potential. Breast milk strongly contributes to good health and nutrition of infants. Apart from being an excellent nutritional source for the growing child, breast milk is associated with a reduced risk of many diseases in infants and mothers. A recent review by Duijts et al. (1) points out that a number of studies in industrialised countries suggest that breast-feeding protects infants against overall infections, gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections. Moreover, Ip et al. (2) reported long-term benefits of breast-feeding for infants to be reduced risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes in later life, and long-term benefits for breast-feeding mothers to be reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.The initiation and duration of exclusive breast-feeding and breast-feeding are influenced by a number of factors. Although the factors that influence the initiation and duration of breast-feeding in developed countries have been broadly studied (3)(4)(5) , previous studies in these countries have rarely examined the factors associated with exclusive breast-feedi...

Infant and childhood nutrition influences short-and long-term health. The objective of the present paper has been to explore dietary patterns and their associations with child and parent characteristics at two time points. Parents of Norwegian 2-year-olds were, in 1999 (n 3000) and in 2007 (n 2984), invited to participate in a national dietary survey. At both time points, diet was assessed by a semiquantitative FFQ that also provided information on several child and parent characteristics. A total of 1373 participants in the 1999 sample and 1472 participants in the 2007 sample were included in the analyses. Dietary patterns were identified by principal components analysis and related to child and parent characteristics using the general linear model. Four dietary patterns were identified at each time point. The 'unhealthy' and 'healthy' patterns in 1999 and 2007 showed similarities with regard to loadings of food groups. Both the 'bread and spread-based' pattern in 1999 and the 'traditional' pattern in 2007 had high positive loadings for bread and spreads; however, the 'traditional' pattern did also include positive associations with a warm meal. The last patterns identified in 1999 and in 2007 were not comparable with regard to loadings of food groups. All dietary patterns were significantly associated with one or several child and parent characteristics. In conclusion, the 'unhealthy' patterns in 1999 and in 2007 showed similarities with regard to loadings of food groups and were, at both time points, associated with sex, breastfeeding at 12 months of age, parity, maternal age and maternal work situation.

Objective: To examine tracking of body size among children participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) from birth to 7 years of age and additionally to explore child and parental characteristics associated with maintenance of a high body size in this period of life. Design: Anthropometric data at birth and at 1, 3 and 7 years of age were collected by questionnaires addressed to the mother. Setting: Participants were recruited from all over Norway during the period 1999-2008. Subjects: A total of 3771 children had complete anthropometric data at birth and at 1, 3 and 7 years of age; the sample includes children born between 2002 and 2004. Results: Cohen's weighted kappa pointed to fair (0·36) to moderate (0·43) tracking of body size from birth to 7 years of age. Generalized estimating equations further indicated that children in the highest tertile of ponderal index at birth had nearly one unit higher BMI (kg/m 2 ) at the age of 7 years compared with children in other tertiles of ponderal index at birth. Having parents with high BMI (≥25·0 kg/m 2 ) increased the odds of having a stable high body size from birth to 7 years of age; moreover, girls had significantly higher odds compared with boys. Conclusions: The study indicates fair to moderate tracking of body size from birth to 7 years of age. From a public health perspective, early prevention of childhood overweight and obesity seems to be especially important among children of parents having a high BMI. KeywordsTracking Body size MoBa Norway Generalized estimating equationsAs the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased worldwide over the past decades (1) , the importance of early prevention is highlighted in strategic documents from the WHO (2) and the European Union (3) . Childhood overweight and obesity are important public health challenges because of their associations with both short-and long-term health risks. Short-term health risks include unfavourable psychological consequences like low self-esteem as well as associations with several cardiovascular risk factors (4) . Long-term health risks include the maintenance of obesity from childhood into later life (4)(5)(6) in addition to increased risk of premature mortality, type 2 diabetes, CVD and morbidity in adulthood (7,8) .Along with the rising prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, it has become essential to understand not only to what extent such conditions are maintained over time but also the factors influencing this maintenance. Maintenance or stability of overweight or obesity over time is often referred to as 'tracking'. Tracking can be defined as: (i) the relative stability of a certain characteristic over time; or (ii) the predictability of a measurement of a certain risk factor early in life for values of the same risk factor later in life (9) . Consequently, the general thought behind tracking is that individuals at risk for diseases later in life can be identified at an early age (10) which possibility can lead to earlier prevent...

Objective: In women, the risk for non-communicable diseases increases after menopause. We aimed to identify major dietary patterns and study their associations with nutrient intake, sociodemographic factors and risk factors for non-communicable diseases among women aged 50-69 years. Design: A cross-sectional study. Food intake was recorded by a 253-item FFQ. Dietary patterns were identified using principal component analysis. The associations between the dietary patterns and nutrients were described by Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis was used to examine the associations between the dietary patterns and age, education, BMI, physical activity and smoking. Setting: The Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Programme. Subjects: Women (n 6298) aged 50-69 years.

Background Early childhood represents a critical period for the establishment of long-lasting healthy dietary habits. Limited knowledge exists on how to successfully increase vegetable consumption among preschool children. The overall aim of the present study was to improve vegetable intake among preschool children in a kindergarten-based randomized controlled trial. Methods The target group was preschool children born in 2010 and 2011, attending public or private kindergartens in two counties in Norway. Data about child intake of vegetables were collected by three methods. First, parents filled in a web-based questionnaire of the child’s vegetable intake. Second, among a subsample, trained researchers observed children’s vegetable intake in the kindergarten. Thirdly, a parental web-based 24-h recall assessing the child’s vegetable intake was filled in. For allocation of kindergartens to intervention and control groups, a stratified block randomization was used. Multiple intervention components were implemented from September 2015 to February 2016 and components focused at influencing the four determinants availability, accessibility, encouragement and role modelling. The effect of the intervention from baseline (spring 2015) to follow-up 1 (spring 2016) was assessed by mixed-model analysis taking the clustering effect of kindergartens into account. Results Parental consent was obtained for 38.8% of the children (633 out of 1631 eligible children). Based on the observational data in the kindergarten setting (n 218 in the control group and n 217 in the intervention group), a tendency to a small positive effect was seen as a mean difference of 13.3 g vegetables/day (95% CI: − 0.2, 26.9) ( P = 0.054) was observed. No significant overall effects were found for the total daily vegetable intake or for the parental reported frequency or variety in vegetable intake. Conclusions Based on the observational data in the kindergarten setting, a tendency to a small positive effect was seen with a mean difference of about 13 g vegetables/day, while no other effects on child vegetable intake were found. Additionally, further research to understand the best strategies to involve parents in dietary interventions studies is warranted. Trial registration International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials ISRCTN51962956 . Registered 21 June 2016 (retrospectively registered). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7436-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.