Predicting weight status in Chinese pre-school children: independent and interactive effects of caregiver types and feeding styles.

Objective: To investigate caregiver type as a potential moderating effect in the relationship between feeding style and weight status among Chinese pre-school children. Design: Cross-sectional data collected with the Caregiver's Feeding Style Questionnaire (CFSQ), anthropometric data, childcare and sociodemographic information. Setting: Shenyang, China. Subjects: Caregiver-child dyads (n 857). Results: After controlling for confounders, authoritarian feeding style was associated with a 0·30 lower BMI Z-score. Fathers as primary caregivers were related to lower BMI Z-score (β=-0·66), while grandparents as main caregivers were associated with higher BMI Z-score (β=0·66) after adjusting for covariates. Mothers buffered the relationship between authoritarian (β=0·50, 95 % CI 0·04, 0·95) or indulgent (β=-0·60, 95 % CI -1·06, -0·14) feeding styles and BMI Z-score. Grandparents strengthened the trend that indulgent feeding style was related to higher BMI Z-score (β=0·54, 95 % CI 0·01, 1·08). Conclusions: The results of independent and interactive effects of specific feeding styles and caregiver types had different influences on child BMI Z-scores. Longitudinal investigations are needed to evaluate the effect of fathers' and grandparents' feeding on their children's nutrition and weight status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]