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Association between parental self-reported knowledge on soy and phytoestrogen and their children's intake of soy-based infant formulae—a cross-sectional study of Israeli parents

  • Original article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Though natural phytoestrogen (PE) is a major factor in health authorities’ considerations regarding soy-based infant formula (SBIF), missing their concentrations may interfere with parents' informed decision.

Methods

We performed an Internet survey investigating soy-related knowledge of parents. We built multiple logistic regression models adjusted for personal covariates for the association between parental knowledge on PE and children intake of SBIF and checked the effect of having children ≤ 2 years old on this association.

Results

We enrolled 304 parents, 48.3% men, mean age 33.8 (standard deviation, SD 4.9), mostly with higher education. Of them, 76% had children under two years of age. Mean parental knowledge on PE was 9.83 (SD 3.28) from 20 possible points. Parental knowledge on PE reduced children's intake of SBIF (odds ratio, OR = 0.85 [95% confidence interval 0.70; 1.02]). Stronger inverse association was found for parents with children ≤ 2 comparing with those with older children (OR = 0.85 [0.67; 1.09] and OR = 0.68 [0.39; 1.18], respectively), although these differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Adding PE content to information on SBIF may support informed decision.

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Acknowledgements

Authors gratefully acknowledge Michal Yackobovitch-Gavan from the Jesse Z and Sara Lea Shafer Institute for Endocrinology and Diabetes, National Center for Childhood Diabetes, Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, Petah Tikva, for her work during the preparation of this article.

Funding

Authors declare no funding or other sources to acknowledge.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, School of Health Professions, Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel

    Niva Shapira

  2. Department of Psychology and Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Talma Kushnir

  3. Member of ESOMAR - World Association of Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals, Brandman Institute, Tel-Aviv, Israel

    Ruth Brandman & Gali Katan

  4. Faculty of Medicine, University of Latvia, Raina Blvd. 19, Riga, Latvia

    Lilian Tzivian

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  1. Niva Shapira
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  2. Talma Kushnir
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  3. Ruth Brandman
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  4. Gali Katan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lilian Tzivian.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for this study was granted by Brandaman research institute, being member of the Israeli Ethical Association. Participation in the Internet-based survey was an indication of free willingness to participate in the study.

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This article is part of the special issue "Market-driven forces and Public Health."

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Shapira, N., Kushnir, T., Brandman, R. et al. Association between parental self-reported knowledge on soy and phytoestrogen and their children's intake of soy-based infant formulae—a cross-sectional study of Israeli parents. Int J Public Health 65, 1079–1085 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01413-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01413-3

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