Infant Feeding Profiles from a Maternal Health Program in Rural Sichuan, China

Supplementary file 1 contains data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the Healthy Future program, which involved 949 mothers in rural Sichuan, China. The dataset includes longitudinal infant feeding trends over the first 6 months postpartum, categorized as exclusive, mixed, or no breastfeeding. The analysis by Siva Balakrishnan identified seven distinct feeding profiles and assessed their association with the intervention.

Use Cases

• Modeling longitudinal breastfeeding trends based on monthly feeding categories.
• Evaluating the impact of community health worker programs on infant feeding practices.
• Clustering maternal populations into distinct behavioral profiles based on feeding data.
• Analyzing associations between feeding profiles and maternal characteristics like education and knowledge.

Strengths

• Data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial (n=949), providing a basis for causal inference.
• Longitudinal data covering 6 months postpartum with monthly observations.
• Results include specific odds ratios (e.g., ROR=2.61 for 'always EBF') linking profiles to the intervention.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is specific to a rural Chinese population, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Siva Balakrishnan via figshare.

Collection Method

Data collected through monthly home visits by community health workers as part of the Healthy Future program evaluation.

Time Range

Covers the first 6 months postpartum for participants.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-17 05:18:18; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rural Sichuan, China.