Breastfeeding, Infant Formula, and Introduction to Complementary Foods—Comparing Data Obtained by Questionnaires and Health Visitors' Reports to Weekly Short Message Service Text Messages

Abstract

Compared with the weekly SMS questions, the self-administered questionnaires and the health visitors' reports resulted in a greater proportion of mothers with an unknown breastfeeding status, a longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding and later introduction to complementary foods, while the duration of any breastfeeding did not differ.

Prevalence and duration of breast milk feeding in very preterm infants: A 3‐year follow‐up study and a systematic literature review

“…Our results could be affected by potential recall bias due to retrospective data collection, and the time between stopping breast milk feeding and reporting for most parents. In a birth cohort from Denmark, comparing data on breast milk feeding obtained from the self‐administered questionnaire at 18 months with the weekly short message service (SMS) questions since birth, a longer duration of exclusive breast milk feeding using the self‐administered questionnaire was observed, while the duration of any breast milk feeding was similar between the 2 methods . In a Brazilian study, 70% of mothers correctly recalled breast milk feeding duration when their children were 4 years of age, while 21% reported higher duration and 9% reported lower duration …”

Iron deficiency in healthy 18-month-old Danish children is associated with no oral iron supplementation in infancy and prolonged exclusive breast-feeding

“…The OCC consists of more highly educated, predominantly ethnic Danish non-smoking parents compared with the general Danish and Scandinavian populations (23) . The prevalence of ID has been linked to lower socio-economic groups, for example, in India (30) .…”

“…Parents are now recommended not to offer cows' milk, but only breast milk or infant formula throughout the first year of life, and they are recommended to serve Fe-rich food such as fish and meat from 6 months of age (14,21) . However, in Denmark only 60 % of children are exclusively breast-fed until 12 weeks of age and only 12 % of children are exclusively breast-fed until 6 months of age, meaning that most children are introduced to solids before 6 months of age (22,23) . In this cohort of children born in 2010-2013, we, therefore, have the possibility to examine the importance of Fe supplementation within the first year of life for Fe status in later childhood.…”

Best practices for collecting repeated measures data using text messages

“…Researchers studying adverse events following influenza vaccination among pregnant women reported a 90% response rate for participants using text messages, compared with 64% who received phone calls [10]. In a study of infant feeding practices, participant data from selfadministered questionnaires or health visitors' reports were more likely to have an unknown breastfeeding status compared with data collected from weekly text messages [6]. Participants in a study where investigators sent text messages twice a day to ask about post-operative pain and prescription opioid use achieved a 96% response rate, in comparison to the 66% that they previously achieved through internet-based surveys [7].…”

“…Researchers may prompt participants to submit repeated measures data by texting a direct response, linking to a survey, or logging into another platform to enter the data [1,5,6]. Direct response eliminates a step and may yield better response rates.…”