The USDA Center for Collaborative Research on WIC Nutrition Education Innovations, funded by USDA FNS supports researcher-initiated projects that demonstrate creative approaches to nutrition education for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The Center has awarded 4 subgrants. Grantees will present their findings at a grantee conference in July 2016. Descriptions of the grants awarded are available on the web at: https://www.bcm.edu/departments/pediatrics/sections-divisions-centers/childrens-nutrition-research-center/research/wic-nutrition-education.
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.
In October 2014, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) awarded a 3-year, $1.9 M grant to Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to establish the USDA Behavioral Economics Center for Healthy Food Choice Research (BECR Center). BECR will conduct behavioral economics research to benefit the nutrition, food security and health of all Americans, with special emphasis on facilitating food choice behaviors that would improve the diets of SNAP participants and WIC participants and promote cost-effective program operations. As part of this grant, the BECR Center has funded the development of 5 conceptual white papers that explore innovative behavioral economic approaches to improve the food cost-management of the WIC program while maintaining program participation and effectiveness in promoting improved diets. These papers will be available in Spring 2016 on the BECR website at: https://becr.sanford.duke.edu/.
The first WIC Medicaid Study, published in 1991, found that every dollar spent on WIC services to low-income pregnant women saved $1.77 to $3.13 in Med- icaid cost during the first 60 days following delivery. This study will reexamine the impacts of WIC in today’s environment. It will examine the characteristics of Medicaid births and estimate the impact of WIC on the following prenatal and birth outcomes: 1) maternal health behaviors (prenatal care adequacy, smoking, weight gain), 2) birth outcomes (birth weight, gestational age, type of delivery, breastfeeding at discharge), 3) maternal risk factors (such as gestational diabetes and hypertension), and 4) Medicaid costs (delivery and newborn costs through 60 days and one year postpartum). Building on work conducted in North Carolina, the study will also examine health utilization and outcomes for children participating in WIC.
The electronic benefits transfer (EBT) study is designed to augment findings from the 2013 WIC Vendor Management Study, which satisfies Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) requirements. The EBT sub-study provides a unique opportunity to closely examine compliance among vendors in states with an EBT system. The findings will help inform the design of the next national Vendor Management study, at which time all States will have moved to EBT systems.
This study will examine indicators of High-Risk WIC Vendors by identifying practices from other government and non-governmental programs in identifying high-risk vendors, developing and testing a micro-simulation model using WIC EBT data to identify high-risk WIC vendors, and identifying design specifications for a national WIC fraud detection system.
The WIC NSA Cost Study will provide an updated assessment of the amounts and categories of costs charged to WIC NSA grants and the variation of these costs among State and local agencies. This study will conduct a census of State and local agencies and include 14 case studies to gain a more detailed assessment of NSA cost categories compared to other similar federal programs such as SNAP and TANF.
This biennial census provides detailed information on the demographic characteristics, economic circumstances and health conditions of WIC clients, along with information on the operational characteristics of State and local WIC agencies. The data are used for policy development, budget projections and regulatory impact analyses. Information about WIC participation characteristics has been prepared biennially since 1992 from administrative records provided by State agencies.
In 2011, FNS published a report on the choices each WIC State agency had made in 2009 in exercising the flexibilities allowed under the new WIC food packages. Since this early implementation, the WIC food package final rule has been published and States have made numerous adjustments to their policy choices. This study will update the previous study with an examination of which foods States offer in their food packages after 5 years of experience with the new food packages.
This study updates a 2010 survey of WIC State Agencies’ Peer Counseling Practices for three reasons: 1) funding for the Loving Support Peer Counseling Program increased from $15 million in FY 2008 to $80 million in FY 2010
and subsequently declined to $60 million in FY 2014, 2) FNS made changes
in the WIC food packages, in part to promote breastfeeding among WIC participants, and 3) there has been an evolution of best practices to support breastfeeding which have been adapted by many State and local WIC agencies more generally as well as specifically for Loving Support Peer Counseling. In the spring of 2014, a web-based survey was administered to the 50 State WIC agencies and the District of Columbia to gather information about how State agencies used the Loving Support Peer Counseling funding and supported the implementation of the program.
