Keyword: Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

Cross-Sectional Evaluation of WIC Participation Status and Massachusetts Children’s Nutrition after the Cash-Value Benefit Increase

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increased the Cash-Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables in 2021. Although WIC participants reported increased purchasing, consumption, and variety of fruits and vegetables after the CVB increase, it is unknown whether this resulted in higher fruit and vegetable intake relative to nonparticipants. The More

An Electronic Health Record-Based Intervention to Facilitate Primary Care Referrals to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: Retrospective Cohort Study

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This study evaluated responses to an electronic health record (EHR)-embedded federal nutrition program (FNP) participation screening and WIC referral tool implemented within 8 clinics during well-child visits for children younger than 5 years of age. Structured EHR data from July 2020 to October 2023 were extracted to summarize screening, referral acceptance, WIC enrollment outcomes, and More

Increases to WIC’s Cash-Value Benefit for Fruits and Vegetables and Higher Benefit Redemption

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The cash-value benefit (CVB) in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supports low-income households with young children to purchase fruits and vegetables. Our objective was to estimate whether the amounts households spent with the CVB increased after recent policy changes. In this natural experiment from 2017 to 2022 among 485 560 More

Reliability and Validity of a Parent-Reported Diet Quality Screener for Young Children: the Rapid Prime Diet Quality Score for Kids (rPDQS-Kids)

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Pediatric dietary assessment is challenging, particularly for young children who cannot accurately report their own intake. Many existing measures are burdensome for proxy-reporters, and briefer dietary screeners focus on specific dietary components but not total diet quality. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate the reliability and validity of an adapted brief More

Forecasting WIC Funding Needs: Supporting Families, Strengthening Access

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In partnership with Westat and with support from Healthy Eating Research, the National WIC Association (NWA) developed a new forecasting model to project funding needs of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) for Fiscal Year 2027. Report This report describes the model development, including methodology, as well as analysis conducted More

An Electronic Health Record-based Intervention to Facilitate Primary Care Referrals to WIC: A Retrospective Cohort Study

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Despite benefits of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), many eligible children remain unenrolled. This study evaluated responses to an electronic health record (EHR)-embedded federal nutrition program (FNP) participation screening and WIC referral tool implemented within eight clinics during <5-year-well visits. Among 5,385 children, mean age at initial screening was More

Assessing Caregiver Comfort With Linking the Health Care System and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

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Integrating WIC referrals within clinical care may improve WIC uptake, data sharing, and nutrition/health outcomes, but little research has explored family perspectives about information exchange between health care providers and WIC regarding their child’s health. Better understanding family perceptions of information exchange could facilitate improvements in the design of effective, family-centered referral pathways. This study More

Automating WIC Screening and Enrollment in Pediatric Primary Care

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Many eligible families face barriers to WIC enrollment, including administrative challenges (such as navigating eligibility criteria) and logistical issues (such as a lack of transportation to in-person appointments and insufficient time for attending enrollment appointments). Pediatricians in academic medical systems are well positioned to promote WIC enrollment because of the frequency of their well-child visits More

“I Didn’t Have to Struggle”: Caregivers’ Perspectives on the Synergistic Interplay of WIC and SNAP on Family Health

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This study explored how increased Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits interacted for dually enrolled households. Twenty-five parents dually enrolled in WIC and SNAP in the spring of 2020 shared perceptions of expanded benefits and reduced administrative requirements via semistructured interviews. Specifically, parents shared More