Start Date: December 2015

ID #: 73247

Principal Investigator: Shu Wen Ng, PhD

Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll

Funding Round: Round 9

See more related research

Share


This will be the first systematic study to quantify on a national scale how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food package changes, which were made in 2009 and finalized in 2014, relate to packaged food purchases (PFP) before and after these changes were made. The changes were intended to provide WIC participants with a wider variety of food options, promote healthier diets, and provide states greater flexibility to accommodate cultural food preferences of WIC participants since the new policy allows states discretion in the list of authorized foods. The aims of this study are to: 1) describe changes in the nutritional profile of PFP among WIC-participating vs. non-participating income-eligible households with any child ages 1 to 4, and 2) determine if state patterns in WIC package options improved the PFP nutritional profiles by WIC households across states belonging to different WIC package patterns. This will be a natural experiment with pre-post design, using similar socioeconomic but non-WIC participating households in the control group. Nutritional profiles of PFP will be measured by key nutrients, percent of calories from key food groups, percent of calories by convenience level, and percent of calories from processing level. Study findings may be used to identify WIC policy options that work to improve the nutritional outcomes among WIC recipients.

Related Research

March 2018

Federal Nutrition Program Revisions Impact Low-income Households’ Food Purchases

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) required major revisions to food packages in 2009. This study examines associations between WIC revisions and nutritional profiles of packaged food purchases from 2008 to 2014 among 4,537 low-income households with preschoolers in the U.S. using Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel data. Among WIC households, More

September 2023

Applied Research Framework: A Guide to Creating Impactful WIC Research Projects and Collaborating with WIC Agencies

The Applied Research Framework aims to help external researchers (e.g., academic or nonprofit researchers) plan, communicate, execute and disseminate research related to WIC. This framework provides a checklist to guide research projects, including advice for building relationships with WIC agencies, descriptions of publicly available WIC-related datasets, and more! WIC agencies may also use this framework More

June 2023

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 Waivers in WIC on Participation, Fruit and Vegetable Purchases, and Nutrition Disparities: A Natural Experiment

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has well-documented benefits for low-income mothers and children. Yet, coverage of eligible individuals is incomplete, participants do not fully utilize benefits, and dietary disparities persist. It is unknown whether COVID-related changes to WIC, particularly the increase in the value of the fruit and vegetable More