Effect of the Washington Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on Pregnancy Outcomes

Objectives: We determined the effect of the Washington State Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: We used a record-linkage retrospective cohort design. We matched records of eligible women who enrolled in Washington WIC from 9/1/1999-12/31/2000 to records of their subsequent birth/fetal death from the Washington State Department of Health to determine their pregnancy outcome between 9/1/1999-10/15/2001 (N = 42,495). We selected comparison women from birth/fetal death records who were WIC-eligible but not on WIC (N = 30,751). We used unconditional logistic regression for analysis.

Results: WIC was protective for preterm delivery depending on history of abortion and adequacy of prenatal care, being most protective for women with abortion and inadequate prenatal care (Odds ratio (OR) = 0.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.3-0.5). WIC was protective for low birth weight depending on women‘s cervical health, with most protection conferred to those with incompetent cervix (OR = 0.2; 95% CI = 0.1-0.6). WIC was protective for fetal death depending on women‘s education, being most protective to those with <12 years of education (OR = 0.2; 95% CI = 0.1-0.3).

Conclusions: WIC is protective for adverse pregnancy outcomes especially for high risk women.