This report offers updated estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits in 2012, including (1) estimates by participant category (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals. The national estimates presented in this report are based on a methodology developed in 2003 by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council (CNSTAT). The report’s State-level estimates use a methodology developed by the Urban Institute that apportions the national figures using data from the American Community Survey.
This report offers updated estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits in 2013, including (1) estimates by participant category (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals. The national estimates presented in this report are based on a methodology developed in 2003 by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council (CNSTAT). The report’s State-level estimates use a methodology developed by the Urban Institute that apportions the national figures using data from the American Community Survey.
At the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an expert Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee is undertaking a comprehensive review of the food packages used in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to bring the program into alignment with current dietary guidelines. In this letter report, the first of three reports to result from this review, the IOM committee evaluates the 2009 regulation that excluded white potatoes from purchase with the WIC cash value voucher (CVV) and considers whether white potatoes should henceforth be allowed as a WIC-eligible vegetable in the CVV.
The phase I interim report, is the second of three reports. The first report, the Evaluation of White Potatoes in the Cash Value Voucher: Letter Report, recommended allowing white potatoes for purchase with the cash value voucher. This second report presents the evidence, analyses, and framework that will be applied to develop the final report (phase II), which will include recommendations for potential modifications to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages.
This report estimates the average monthly food costs for each of 5 WIC participant subgroups and estimates total dollars spent on 17 major categories of WIC-eligible foods in FY 2010. The participant and food level costs in this report are USDA’s first estimates since implementation of the 2009 WIC food package changes.
The WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study 2 (WIC ITFPS-2)/ “Feeding My Baby” Study is designed to describe the feeding practices used by caregivers and measure the nutrition outcomes of children who participate in WIC. The study uses a longitudinal design; caregivers respond to surveys periodically from a prenatal interview through the infant’s third birthday. This study will provide a series of reports. The current report presents results from the prenatal survey.
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s 1990 WIC Medicaid Study I found that prenatal WIC participation was associated with improved birth outcomes and savings in Medicaid costs. A 2003 study by Buescher, et al., found that WIC participation during childhood was associated with increased health care utilization and Medicaid costs, and concluded that WIC enhanced children’s linkages to the health care system.
This study describes some of the choices state agencies made as they exercised the flexibility offered during the implementation and describes the resulting food packages.
This publication is based on the WIC Infant Feeding Practices Study (WIC-IFPS) sponsored by FNS. The WIC-IFPS is a one-year longitudinal study, which describes the infant feeding practices over the first year of life among a nationally representative sample of approximately 900 mothers who participated in WIC while they were pregnant.
The WIC Nutrition Education Study (NEST) provides detailed information on WIC nutrition education services and includes the following two phases:
-- Phase I: Comprehensive nationally representative description of WIC nutrition education processes and features.
-- Phase II: Pilot study of the impact of WIC nutrition education on nutrition and other behaviors in six WIC sites.
This report presents the Phase I results of the study.