WIC-eligible women with unintended pregnancies and fewer social supports tend to participate in WIC, but those who experience more structural barriers are less likely to participate. Asian/Pacific Islander women may face specific challenges to WIC participation.
In response to the Farris et al article, the authors remind readers that the final committee WIC food package review became available in January of 2017, and the committee recommendd that USDA allow Wic participants to recieve an additional $3 in the CVV instead of juice.
The peer support counseling intervention improved breastfeeding duation and initation in the two trial clinics in Washington State. "The likelihood that women enrolled in WIC would initiate BF at Public Health Seattle and King County Clinics increased by 3%, whereas those in Catholic Health Initatives Franciscan Medical Group clinics increased by 6.8%. Women receiving services in smaller PHSKC clinics (n < 60 women) were likely to breastfeed their infants at >1 week."
80 WIC participants in a mid-atlantic city were surveyed, and remoted interest in HIV tesitng if offered at WIC. Barriers included concerns about privacy and intimate partner violence.
"The intervention helped low-income young mothers with overweight or obesity improve social cognitive factors related to lifestyle change. Intervention participants ate less fat and fast food over the short term. However, the intervention was not effective in helping these mothers eat more fruits and vegetables or drink fewer sugar-sweetened beverages in the short term."
studies from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have demonstrated decreases in the prevalence of obesity among 3- to 23-month-old infants and toddlers and among 2- to 4-year-old children enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
"Participation in WIC during pregnancy was significantly associated with being up-to-date at 2, 6, and 36 months. Participation in WIC was associated with an increased likelihood of up-to-date vaccination status, and engaging eligible foreign-born families in programs such as WIC might provide an opportunity to increase on-time vaccination "
Diet quality was assessed among participants in the WIC program across three time points following the WIC food package shift instituted nationally in 2009. Retention rates were 91% at 12 months and 89% at 18 months. For our WIC study, we augmented retention by developing a home data collection protocol and increased focus on staff diversity training.
Ver Ploeg et al. (2015) examined the types of stores households usually frequent for food shopping, how they get there, and how far they travel. The study showed that about 90 percent of all households shop at large stores such as supermarkets and supercenters, and this percentage does not vary much by participation in SNAP or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), or by income or by mode of travel to the store.
CHEW, a smartphone app provides shopping tools, including barcode scanners and calculators to maximize the WIC benefit redemption rate. Testing found that the app was successful with WIC mothers with moderate levels of app usage.
