WIC interventions to reduce maternal alcohol intake have positive health and birth outcomes.
The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is managing a small-grants research program, funded by USDA FNS. Through a competitive process, UCLA awarded seven grants in June 2012. The two-year projects to academic researchers, in partnership with WIC agencies, focus on the role that the WIC program is playing and can play in improving nutrition in pre-conceptional and periconceptional (between pregnancies) periods. FNS and UCLA anticipate that the grants will foster future collaboration and additional outside funding, along with findings that can inform WIC program development and nutrition education nationwide. Grantees presented their findings at a grantee conference in August 2015. Descriptions of the small grants awarded are available on the web at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/ops/role-wic-program-improving-peri-conceptional-nutrition-small-grants-program.
Receipt of an unconditional prenatal income supplement was associated with positive outcomes. Placing conditions on income supplements may not be necessary to promote prenatal and perinatal health.
