This collection is a revision of the currently approved collection for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices 2 Study (ITFPS-2) [OMB Control Number 0584-0580].
The revision is to extend data collection on the original cohort of study participants by one more interview around their 9th birthday, which is four years after the end of their period of eligibility for WIC services. It also seeks to collect administrative data from WIC state agencies to examine the WIC participation patterns of participants who enrolled in the study but discontinued their participation during the first 5 years of the study (i.e., during the period of time when study children would be categorically eligible for WIC).
Abstract
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) WIC ITFPS-2 provides information on the feeding practices of children who received WIC benefits, from birth up to 6 years of age. The proposed data collection will extend the longitudinal data collection of the current cohort of study participants for one more interview at nine years of age, four years after the end of their eligibility for WIC services. This proposed extension is needed to understand the nutrition, health outcomes, and family feeding practices of school-aged children in the period after WIC program eligibility ends. The results will assist in the development of appropriate and effective prevention strategies to improve the health of young children. With nearly 45 percent of US infants participating in WIC, it is hoped that prevention strategies implemented in WIC will have a substantial impact on the growth and health of U.S. infants and children.
The data will be used to estimate the type and prevalence of various feeding practices among children who received WIC program benefits, after their program eligibility ends. This study will also examine the circumstances and influences that shape caregivers' feeding decisions for their children, and will describe the impact of childhood WIC participation on subsequent dietary and health outcomes. In addition, the study will examine if those who left the longitudinal study are fundamentally different from those who remain in the study.
The study activities subject to this notice include: Inform 27 WIC state agencies and 80 local WIC sites of the data collection, and their role in the study; contact 27 WIC state agencies for administrative data on the participants who left the study before the child's fifth birthday; contact 3,020 caregivers before the 9-year interview to notify them of the study extension and for them to provide consent and contact information updates, and to send study reminders; administer an additional telephone interview to caregivers of children enrolled in the study when their child is 9 years old; administer a second dietary intake interview to a subsample of caregivers who complete the first interview; and obtain child's height and weight measurements around age nine, taken by their health care provider or at WIC sites, from caregivers.
The WIC state agency and local WIC site staff will be invited to participate in a webinar that will highlight key study findings to date (from reports approved and published by FNS) and describe the data collection at age nine. The 27 state agencies and 80 sites will participate in conference calls to discuss the follow-up activities. The 27 state agencies will be asked to provide administrative data on the participants who left the study before the study child's fifth birthday.
Upon approval, the caregivers will be mailed a study announcement letter, consent form, and contact information form. Periodically before the 9-year interview, caregivers will receive mailings, calls, emails, and text messages asking for their updated contact information. About a week prior to being contacted for the 9-year telephone interview, the caregiver for each child in the cohort will be mailed an advance letter that includes a toll-free number to call for questions or to complete the interview at any time during the six-week interview window. Children's H/W measures will come from provider records supplied by caregivers, or WIC site staff will weigh and measure study children around their ninth birthday. WIC site staff will also provide updated contact information on study participants who are still in contact with WIC, when requested. Healthcare providers will be contacted by the caregivers who do not wish to go to the WIC sites to measure the child.
From the last submission of the ICR to this revision, the number of the respondents to the telephone interview and height and weight measurement collection has decreased. The burden on the caregivers has increased slightly because of the increase in the interview length and the contacts to obtain updated contact information. The burden on the state agencies has increased substantially because of the request to provide administrative data on the participants who left the study before the study child's fifth birthday, which is new to this data collection.