Repeatability of maternal report on prenatal, perinatal and early postnatal factors: findings from the IDEFICS parental questionnaire

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the repeatability of maternal self-reported prenatal, perinatal and early postnatal factors within the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) study. Design: Data are from the baseline survey of the longitudinal cohort study IDEFICS in eight European countries. Subjects: A total of 420 parents from eight countries (43-61 per country) were asked to complete the parental questionnaire (PQ) twice at least 1 month apart. Measurements: The PQ assesses prenatal (maternal weight gain), perinatal (child's birth weight and length, Caesarean (C)-section, week of delivery) and early postnatal factors (exclusive breastfeeding, breastfeeding, introduction of solid food). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to compare maternal reports on prenatal, perinatal and early postnatal factors between the first and second PQ. Results: In total, 249 data sets were considered for the analyses. Overall, maternal reports for prenatal and perinatal factors showed higher repeatability (ICC ¼ 0.81-1.00, Pp0.05 for all) than those for early infant nutrition (ICC ¼ 0.33-0.88, Pp0.05 for all). Perfect agreement was found for parental reports on C-section (ICC all ¼ 1.00, Pp0.05). There was stronger agreement for duration of breastfeeding (ICC ¼ 0.71, Pp0.05) compared with exclusive breastfeeding (ICC ¼ 0.33, Pp0.05). Maternal reports showed moderate correlation for the introduction of several types of food (cereals ICC ¼ 0.64, Pp0.05; fruits ICC ¼ 0.70, Pp0.05; meat ICC ¼ 0.83, Pp0.05; vegetables ICC ¼ 0.75, Pp0.05), and high correlation (ICC ¼ 0.88, Pp0.05) for cow's milk. Conclusion: Maternal reports on pregnancy and birth were highly reproducible, but parental recall of early infant nutrition was weaker and should be interpreted more cautiously. 4 There is evidence that birth weight below and above average is associated with overweight and obesity in childhood. 5 Breastfeeding and early infant nutrition are also shown to be influencing factors on children's body weight. 6,7 In most epidemiological studies, these obesity-related factors are usually assessed by parental reports, particularly by maternal reports. Therefore, it is important to assess the quality of parental or rather maternal information within the framework of studies on childhood obesity. Previous studies have investigated the reliability of maternal reports on prenatal, perinatal and on postnatal factors, and suggest that maternal recall data are reproducible for perinatal factors, for example, birth weight, gestational age or medical procedures. 8,9 In contrast, maternal reports on prenatal factors, for example, maternal weight gain during pregnancy, 10 and early infant nutrition, for example, breastfeeding or introduction of solid food, 11,12 showed only moderate agreement or inconsistency in their reliability.Several studies indicated that other factors, for example, time span or the age of the child, have an impact on the repeatability of maternal self...

Infant feeding practices and prevalence of obesity in eight European countries – the IDEFICS study

“…The study relied on parental recall of feeding practices that for some parents meant recalling feeding practices occurring as long as 8 years prior, as the IDEFICS children ranged in age from 2 to 9 years. However, in a study of repeatability of maternal report with IDEFICS participants, the postnatal questions such as exclusive breast-feeding had fair-to-good repeatability (38) . In addition, our findings may not be considered representative on the country level.…”

Prevalence of overweight and obesity in European children below the age of 10

“…In addition, the reliability of questionnaires was checked by re-administering selected items of the parental questionnaire to a convenience sample of study participants. 15,16 Reference systems to classify the weight status of children Reference systems that are currently used to describe the weight status of children are based on age-and sex-specific BMI. There is an ongoing debate of the limitations of BMI as a measure of adiposity in children, but there are also several publications that show the usefulness of this simple and robust anthropometric parameter and its high correlation with other measures of adiposity.…”

The IDEFICS cohort: design, characteristics and participation in the baseline survey

“…30 In addition, the reliability of questionnaires was checked by readministering the CEHQ and selected questions of the parental questionnaire to a convenience sample of study participants. 31,32 Food consumption assessed by the CEHQ was validated against selected nutrients measured in blood and urine samples. 33 The new method to analyse the fatty acid profile in a dried drop of blood was compared with the standard analysis of serum and erythrocytes from venous blood.…”