Nutrition Assistance Program Report Series 

The Office of Research and Analysis 

Special Nutrition Programs Report No. WIC-12-WM 

 

Effects of the Special Supplemental 

Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC): 

A Review of Recent Research 

January 2012 
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January 2012 

Special Nutrition Programs 

Report Number: WIC-12-WM 

Effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC): A Review of Recent Research 

Authors: 

Silvie Colman 

Ira P. Nichols-Barrer 

Julie E. Redline 

Barbara L. Devaney 

Sara V. Ansell 

Ted Joyce (Baruch College, CUNY) 

Submitted by: Submitted to: 

Mathematica Policy Research Office of Research and Analysis 

P.O. Box 2393 USDA Food and Nutrition Service 

Princeton, NJ 08543-2393 3101 Park Center Dr., Room 1014 

Telephone: (609) 799-3535 Alexandria, VA 22302-1500 

Facsimile: (609) 799-0005 

Project Director: Project Officer:

Nancy Cole Janis Johnston 

This study was conducted under GSA Contract GS-10F-0050L, task order AG-3198-D-10-0057 with the Food and 

Nutrition Service. 

This report is available on the Food and Nutrition Service website: http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora 

Suggested Citation: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Research and Analysis, Effects of the Special 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): A Review of Recent Research by Silvie 

Colman, Ira P. Nichols-Barrer, Julie E. Redline, Barbara L. Devaney, Sara V. Ansell, and Ted Joyce. Project 

Officer Janis Johnston. Report WIC-12-WM. Alexandria, VA: January 2012.

iii 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

This report was prepared by Silvie Colman, Ira P. Nichols-Barrer, Julie E. Redline, Barbara L. 

Devaney, and Sara V. Ansell of Mathematica Policy Research and Ted Joyce of Baruch College, City 

University of New York for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), 

Office of Research and Analysis. The authors express their gratitude to Mary Kay Fox for reviewing 

the report and providing invaluable guidance and to Victor Oliveira, external reviewer, for providing 

helpful comments. The authors also thank Janis Johnston of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 

Food and Nutrition Service for her input and support. 

v 

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1

A. Program Overview ................................................................................... 2

B. Scope of Review and Search Methods ....................................................... 4

1. Electronic Database Search Protocol .................................................. 4

2. Identifying Relevant Studies .............................................................. 7

C. Selection Issues in WIC Evaluations .......................................................... 8

D. Other Considerations .............................................................................. 9

II. IMPACTS ON PREGNANCY AND BIRTH OUTCOMES .................................................. 11

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 11

B. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 12

C. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 14

D. Research Results ................................................................................... 15

III. IMPACTS ON INFANT FEEDING PRACTICES ............................................................. 29

A. Selection Issues Specific to Evaluations of Infant Feeding Practices ........ 29

B. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 29

C. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 30

D. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 30

E. Research Results ................................................................................... 31

IV. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD DIETARY INTAKE, FOOD SECURITY, AND RELATED 

OUTCOMES ......................................................................................................... 39

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 39

B. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 39

C. Research Results ................................................................................... 40

V. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD GROWTH OUTCOMES .......................................... 53

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 53

B. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 54
vi 

C. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 54

D. Research Results ................................................................................... 55

VI. IMPACTS ON CHILD IMMUNIZATION ...................................................................... 61

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 61

B. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 61

C. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 62

D. Research Results ................................................................................... 62

VII. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD UTILIZATION OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND 

RELATED COSTS ................................................................................................. 65

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 65

B. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 66

C. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 66

D. Research Results ................................................................................... 67

VIII. IMPACTS ON CHILD HEALTH AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE 

DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................... 73

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias ............................................. 73

B. Other Methodological Considerations .................................................... 74

C. Summary of Key Findings ...................................................................... 74

D. Research Results ................................................................................... 75

IX. RESEARCH OVERVIEW ........................................................................................... 81

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 83 

APPENDIX A. STUDY ABSTRACTS .................................................................................A1 
vii 

TABLES 

I.1. Searchable Databases Used in Comprehensive Literature Search ............. 5

I.2. WIC Impact Study Identifiers Used in Querying Searchable Databases ..... 5

I.3. Outcome Keywords Used in Querying Searchable Databases ................... 6

II.1. Studies Examining the Effect of Prenatal WIC Participation on Pregnancy 

and Birth Outcomes .............................................................................. 24

III.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant Feeding 

Practices ............................................................................................... 35

IV.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child 

Nutrition .............................................................................................. 47

V.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child 

Growth ................................................................................................. 59

VI.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Immunization ...... 64

VII.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child 

Health Care Utilization and Associated Costs ........................................ 70

VIII.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Child Health and 

Socioemotional and Cognitive Development ......................................... 78

1 

 

I. INTRODUCTION 

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) 

provides nutritious food supplementation, nutrition education, and screening and referral to health 

and social services to pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and 

infants and children up to 5 years of age. WIC also supports the initiation and continuation of 

breastfeeding among postpartum women who choose to breastfeed. The objective of the program 

is to improve fetal growth and development, improve the health and development of infants and 

young children, and increase access to needed services. The WIC program has greatly expanded 

since its inception as a pilot program in 1972. The average monthly participation in the program 

increased from approximately 88,000 in 1974 to more than 9.2 million in fiscal year 2010. The 

annual expenditure for the program for fiscal year 2010 was $6.8 billion, making it the third-largest 

nutrition assistance program in the United States (Oliveira 2011). 

The existing body of research on the WIC program is large in size and scope. With respect to 

impacts on birth-, nutrition- and health-related outcomes, WIC is the most widely studied of the 

food and nutrition assistance programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In 2004, 

USDA published the most comprehensive review of WIC impact studies completed to date (Fox et 

al. 2004). That report catalogued the effects of WIC on pregnant women’s health, birth outcomes, 

and breastfeeding practices; participants’ dietary intakes; and infant and child health outcomes. In 

addition, the report discussed research findings on health care service utilization and the Medicaid 

costs (and cost-savings) associated with WIC participation. By discussing the strengths and 

weaknesses of available data sources and previous methodological approaches, the authors also 

helped identify several important gaps in the existing research and pathways for future study. 

In recent years, the WIC program has continued to be the subject of much research. 

Researchers have produced more-refined methodological approaches and attempted to measure 

WIC’s impact on previously unmeasured outcomes. The present report is intended to update the 

literature review completed by Fox et al. (2004) by comprehensively reviewing all published research 

on WIC program impacts between 2002 and 2010 as well as “gray” or unpublished research 

completed between 1999 and 2010. Studies released during this interval include all currently 

available research that was not reviewed by Fox and her colleagues. 

This report begins with an overview of the WIC program, including its administrative structure 

and benefits, and a detailed description of the literature search protocol used to identify the studies 

included. The research overview begins with a discussion of selection issues related to WIC 

evaluations, and follows with a detailed discussion of the evidence on the association between WIC 

and specific health outcomes that have been grouped into seven categories: (1) pregnancy and birth 

outcomes; (2) infant feeding practices; (3) infant and child dietary intake, food security, and related 

outcomes; (4) infant and child growth; (5) child immunization; (6) health care utilization and 

associated costs; and (7) child health and socioemotional and cognitive development.1

 Each 

outcome section discusses the approaches used to deal with selection bias, other methodological 

challenges (if applicable), an overview of the key findings, and a discussion of the strengths and 

weaknesses of the individual studies. 

1 None of the studies identified through the literature search focused on the health outcomes of postpartum or 

breastfeeding women. 
2 

A. Program Overview 

WIC is a federally funded program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of 

USDA. However, WIC is not implemented uniformly nationwide. There are 90 WIC State 

Agencies (WSAs), including the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, four territories 

(American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands), and 34 Indian Tribal 

Organizations (ITOs). Each WSA is separately responsible for assigning food packages consistent 

with the WIC participant’s eligibility category and for issuing WIC food instruments, such as 

vouchers or EBT cards, to participants for redemption at authorized retailers. Items included in the 

state food list must satisfy federal regulations; however, state lists may also reflect more stringent 

selection criteria established by the WSA. As a result, each WSA has the discretion to establish its 

own list of authorized foods based on factors that include the availability of certain foods within the 

state, the cost of individual foods and brands, the nutrient value of available foods, and (with FNS 

approval) variations in cultural eating patterns. 

To participate in WIC, applicants must meet three eligibility criteria. First, they must be 

members of one of five groups: (1) pregnant women up to six weeks after delivery, (2) breastfeeding 

women up to one year after delivery, (3) non-breastfeeding women up to six months after delivery, 

(4) infants, or (5) children up to age 5. In 2008, half of all WIC participants were children aged 1 to 

4, 25 percent were infants, 11 percent were pregnant women, and the rest were postpartum 

breastfeeding or non-breastfeeding women (Connor et al. 2010). The distribution of women, 

infants, and children in the program has remained relatively stable since 2002 (Fox et al. 2004). 

Second, applicants must show, through the assessment of a health professional, that they are at 

nutritional risk according to federal guidelines. Such risk can be based on biochemical or 

anthropometric measurements, a nutrition-related medical condition, dietary deficiencies, unhealthy 

behavior such as alcohol or drug abuse, or conditions that can lead to risk, such as homelessness. 

Third, participants must be either income eligible (household income at or below 185 percent 

of the federal poverty level [FPL]) or adjunctively eligible through participation in other meanstested programs. Persons who participate in Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 

(TANF; formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children [AFDC]), the Supplemental Nutrition 

Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program), or other programs with income 

guidelines at or below that specified for WIC are automatically income eligible and need not provide 

proof of income (Connor et al. 2010). Applicants are also adjunctively income eligible if they are a 

member of a family that is certified as eligible to receive assistance under TANF or if they are a 

member of a family in which a pregnant woman or an infant is certified as eligible to receive 

assistance under Medicaid (7 CFR 246.7). In 2008, 62 percent of WIC participants reported 

receiving Medicaid, 22.6 percent reported receiving SNAP benefits, and 6.5 percent reported 

receiving TANF at the time of certification, with about 30 percent of WIC participants who did not 

participate in other programs (Connor et al. 2010). The 30 percent of WIC participants who are not 

adjunctively eligible tend to have higher incomes relative to the rest of the WIC population. Overall, 

WIC has been successful in enrolling the most economically disadvantaged population. In 2008, 68 

percent of WIC participants lived in households with incomes below 100 percent of FPL, compared 

to 12.5 percent among the general U.S. population (Connor et al. 2010). 

WIC is not an entitlement program, and enrollment depends on availability of funds, which is 

determined by annual appropriations. To ensure that the population at the greatest nutritional risk is 

served, WIC has developed a priority system that takes effect once a local agency reaches its 
3 

 

maximum enrollment under the current budget and is applied to the applicants on the local agency’s 

waiting list. In recent years, funding appropriations have been sufficient to provide benefits to all 

applicants seeking to participate, and as a result the waiting list provisions have not come into effect 

(Oliveira 2009). The program has achieved broad levels of national coverage. In 2006, nearly 30 

percent of all pregnant women, almost half of all infants, and about a quarter of children aged 1 to 4 

in the United States had participated in WIC (Oliveira 2009). Nevertheless, a substantial proportion 

of eligible women do not enroll. According to the latest estimates, WIC enrolled 59 percent of the 

total eligible population in 2007 (Harper et al. 2009). 

The WIC program is designed to address the negative impacts of poverty on prenatal, infant, 

and early childhood health by providing supplemental foods, nutrition counseling, and referral to a 

wide range of complementary health and social services. Although each state has some discretion in 

determining its preferred method for distributing supplemental foods, most State agencies provide 

coupons for food purchases at retail vendors. The quantities and types of allowed foods are 

federally regulated. All beneficiaries are assigned to one of seven benefit packages based on 

pregnancy status, breastfeeding practices, dietary needs, and child age. The available supplemental 

foods include a wide range of food categories, and the quantities of allowed foods vary for each 

package type. Prior to 2009, the available food categories were infant formula, infant cereal, juice, 

cereal, milk, eggs, cheese, dried beans and/or peanut butter, tuna fish, and carrots. 

In 2009, comprehensive revisions to the WIC food packages went into effect.2 The new 

packages align with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and infant feeding practices 

supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The food packages were intended to better 

support the establishment of successful, long-term breastfeeding; provide WIC participants with a 

wider variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; and allow State agencies greater 

flexibility in prescribing packages that accommodate the cultural preferences of WIC participants. 

Although these program revisions are likely to affect the relationship between WIC participation and 

a broad range of maternal and child outcomes, none of the studies included in this review 

incorporated participant samples observed after State agencies implemented the new Interim Rule. 

In recent years, the WIC program has also strongly emphasized breastfeeding promotion. 

Prenatal WIC participants are encouraged, through educational materials and counseling, to initiate 

breastfeeding once the baby is born, and the program continues to promote breastfeeding to 

postpartum women, through both nutrition education and an enhanced food package for 

breastfeeding women and breastfed infants 6 to 12 months of age. However, the WIC program also 

offers food packages that provide a supplemental amount of infant formula. Because infant formula 

is expensive, the total market value of the food package provided to breastfeeding women is lower 

than that of the package tailored to formula-feeding women. This has led some observers to suggest 

that WIC program “incentivizes” formula use and discourages breastfeeding. With the goal of 

reducing such incentives and promoting breastfeeding, recent changes to the food packages 

significantly reduced the difference between the market value of food packages for fully 

breastfeeding and partially breastfeeding or non-breastfeeding women. 

2 All state agencies were required to implement the revised program regulations by October 1, 2009. The full, 

revised Interim Rule was released as 72 Federal Register 68965-69032. 
4 

B. Scope of Review and Search Methods 

The current report focuses on peer-reviewed studies published since 2002 and unpublished 

studies completed in 1999 or later. The search protocol used in this review corresponds closely to 

the one used in Fox et al. (2004), with a specific focus on the literature relating to WIC rather than 

to all nutrition-related programs, as in the previous review. The protocol involved three 

components: (1) a comprehensive electronic database search focused on published studies and 

dissertations; (2) a public call for studies; and (3) a customized internet search focused on 

unpublished research. 

1. Electronic Database Search Protocol 

The main component of the literature identification process was a comprehensive computerized 

search of bibliographic databases, with the goal of ensuring that the results included all potentially 

relevant studies. This approach is likely to produce many irrelevant citations in an initial search, but 

it is unlikely to exclude studies with relevant research findings. As a result, the search protocol was 

highly inclusive and permitted a wide variety of possible keyword combinations. The selection of 

searchable databases and keywords was carefully considered, as discussed below. The actual 

database search was implemented by a professional research librarian with experience supporting 

comprehensive literature reviews and social science research. 

Selecting Searchable Databases 

The first step in selecting the list of searchable databases was to review and update the list of 

bibliographic resources searched by Fox et al. (2004). Several of the databases used in the earlier 

report have been consolidated into searchable platforms (EBSCOhost, FirstSearch, and OvidSP), 

which permits a single search query to return results from a much broader set of resources. A few 

databases from the earlier report had ceased operations and were therefore excluded. The present 

search also included a small number of newly available online electronic resources, such as the 

Health Policy Reference Center, which added significant breadth to the included body of searched 

literature. As shown in Table I.1, the online search used a total of 18 databases. 

Defining Search Parameters

Because the search included such a broad range of databases, it was necessary to repeat the 

same query across multiple online platforms. The queries used identical search terms in all the 

searched bibliographic databases. Each query had three required components: (1) a WIC program 

identifier, (2) an impact study identifier, and (3) an outcome identifier. To be included in the search 

results, studies had to include at least one term from each of the three search components. The 

search terms used by Fox et al. (2004) provided the starting point for developing the list of keywords 

included under each of the three components. Because the earlier literature review included 

programs other than WIC, the search terms were adjusted to remove identifiers of non-WIC 

programs. The current search also included several additional WIC-specific outcome keywords. 

Each search included all the terms in tables I.2 and I.3 and was limited to studies published between 

2002 and 2010. 
5 

Table I.1. Searchable Databases Used in Comprehensive Literature Search 

Database Platform Database Producer Subject Category 

Ageline EBSCOhost American Association of 

Retired Persons 

Social services and public 

welfare 

Agricultural Online Access 

(AGRICOLA) 

Online U.S. National Agricultural 

Research Library 

Agricultural research; 

economics; policy 

Combined Health Information 

Database 

Online National Institutes of Health Child health 

Dissertation Abstracts Online FirstSearch University Microfilms, Inc. General 

Economic Literature Index 

(EconLit) 

EBSCOhost American Economic 

Association 

Health economics 

Education Research 

Information Center (ERIC) 

EBSCOhost U.S. Department of Education Education research 

E-Journals EBSCOhost EBSCO Industries, Inc. General 

Federal Research in Progress 

(FEDRIP) 

Online U.S. National Technical 

Information Service 

General 

GPO Monthly Catalogue Online U.S. Government Printing 

Office 

General 

Health Policy Reference Center EBSCOhost EBSCO Industries, Inc. Health economics 

HealthStar OVID U.S. National Library of 

Medicine 

Health economics 

Inside Conferences FirstSearch British Library General 

MEDLINE OVID U.S. National Library of 

Medicine 

Medicine and health; 

nutrition 

Nursing and Allied Health 

Database 

EBSCOhost Cinahl Information Systems Nursing and allied health; 

medicine and health; 

nutrition 

Nutrition Evidence Library Online U.S. Department of 

Agriculture 

Nutrition 

PsycInfo Online American Psychological 

Association 

Social science research 

Social Sciences Index EBSCOhost H.W. Wilson Company Social science research 

Sociological Abstracts EBSCOhost H.W. Wilson Company Social services and public 

welfare 

Table I.2. WIC Impact Study Identifiers Used in Querying Searchable Databases 

WIC Program Identifiers (one match required) 

Impact Study Identifiers 

 (one match required) 

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 

Children 

Association 

Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children Relationship between 

Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children Effect 

Women, Infants, and Children Program Affect 

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Evaluation 

WIC Impact 
6 

Table I.3. Outcome Keywords Used in Querying Searchable Databases 

Terms Used in Fox et al. (2004) New Terms 

Nutrition

Anemia Folacin Iron-deficiency Added Sugar 

Anemic Folic acid Iron deficient Carbohydrates 

Breakfast consumption Food availability Iron-deficient Cholesterol 

Diet Food choices Iron status Fat 

Dietary adequacy Food costs Malnutrition Fiber 

Dietary effects Food expenditures Nutrient availability Food energy 

Dietary impacts Food insecurity Nutrient content Grains 

Dietary intake Food intake Nutrient consumption Mineral 

Dietary outcomes Food purchases Nutrient intake Protein 

Dietary patterns Food security Nutrition Sodium 

Dietary practices Food selections Nutritional adequacy Vitamin 

Dietary quality Food use Nutritional intake 

Dietary trends Healthy Eating Index Nutritional status 

Dietary variety Hemoglobin Overnutrition 

Eating behaviors Hunger Undernutrition 

Eating practices Iron deficiency 

Health-Related Behaviors

Alcohol use Drug abuse Prenatal care Alcohol consumption 

Cigarette (tobacco) use Drug use Smoking Breast feed 

Immunizations Breastfeed 

Infant feeding practices Formula-feed 

Perinatal care Infant formula 

Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes

Birth weight Intrauterine growth Neural tube defects Apgar score 

Birthweight Length of gestation Perinatal morbidity Birth-weight 

Fetal growth Light-for-date infants Pregnancy Cesarean delivery 

Fetal outcomes Maternal morbidity Pregnancy outcome(s) Fetal death 

Gestational age Maternal mortality Prematurity Gestational 

Head circumference Maternal weight gain Preterm delivery Gestational diabetes 

Infant morbidity Neonatal morbidity Preterm infants Hypertension 

Infant mortality Neonatal mortality Infant death 

Large-for-gestational age 

Premature birth 

Preterm birth 

Pregnancy weight 

Small-for-gestational age 

Other Relevant Mother, Infant or Child Outcomes

Body Mass Index (BMI) Health status Skinfold(s) Childhood illness 

Body measurements Height Stature EPSDT 

Body weight Hematocrit Underweight Hemoglobin 

Bone density Length Weight Postneonatal death 

Growth Morbidity Weight gain Postneonatal mortality 

Growth rate Mortality Well-child exam 

Growth velocity Obesity Well-child visit 

Health Overweight 

Health outcome(s) Postnatal growth 

Child Development

Behavioral development School attendance Abuse 

Cognitive development School performance Neglect 

Cognitive performance 

Health Care Utilization and Costs

Healthcare (access, 

utilization, needs, cost) 

Dental 

Emergency room visit 

Medicaid Healthcare expenditure 

Medical (care, cost, need) Hospitalization 

Medicare Medical expenditure 

Saving
7 

In addition to the search of electronic databases, the study team used two strategies to search 

the “gray” literature, which includes reports and policy briefs published by the Federal or State 

governments or private research organizations, working papers, and dissertations. The study team 

conducted a Google-based custom search of selected website domains and issued a public call for 

WIC-related research that was completed between 1999 and 2010 but was not published in peerreviewed journals. The domain names for the Google-based search included a broad range of 

Federal agencies, State governments, all State WIC agencies, academic and private research 

institutions, advocacy organizations, and WIC-related associations. The study team reviewed all 

documents and web pages that were returned by the Google search and that met search criteria. 

The public call for studies was posted on the website of the Food Research and Action Center and 

was distributed to Directors of State WIC agencies through the National WIC Association. 

2. Identifying Relevant Studies 

All the references the search protocol captured were compiled into a single list using referencemanagement software. This list provided title, author, and (when provided) abstract information for 

all the collected articles, without incurring the cost of acquiring full texts. An electronic matching 

protocol identified and removed exact citation duplicates returned from separate databases. 

The study team manually reviewed the collected article titles and abstracts and identified all 

citations potentially relevant to the review. Any study that claimed to analyze effects of WIC 

participation was selected for inclusion, and all citations that did not provide enough information to 

make a screening determination were marked for potential inclusion. Full texts were acquired for all 

the potentially relevant studies, and a final round of screening was conducted using the full texts of 

obtained articles to determine if the studies included estimates of WIC participation impacts. 

Because the initial search protocol was designed to be very inclusive, the search results returned 

a large number of irrelevant citations that were eventually excluded from this review. Citations that 

were excluded tended to fall into one of the following categories: 

• General program descriptions 

• WIC program materials, brochures, and training manuals 

• Descriptions of WIC participation levels and participant characteristics 

• Descriptive research on WIC implementation, operations, and program costs 

• Descriptive analyses that did not attempt to adjust for differences between WIC 

participants and nonparticipants 

• Studies related to outcomes of interest that did not estimate effects of WIC participation 

• Studies evaluating an intervention that is not a standard component of the WIC program 

(such as a newly designed antismoking or breastfeeding-promotion initiative) using a 

sample of WIC participants only 

In addition to the comprehensive electronic search, the study team conducted a manual crosscheck of the final citation list against a sample of WIC literature reviews and the bibliographies of 

highly cited WIC articles. Omissions were unusual, but occasionally the cross-check did identify 
8 

relevant research that was subsequently added to the list of studies included in this review. 

Additional citations provided by these reviewers were incorporated into this report. 

The full texts of articles were obtained from online downloads, Mathematica Policy Research’s 

in-house library, university libraries, interlibrary loan services, and, when necessary, from primary 

authors. All full-text articles were reviewed by the study team, who used the screening criteria 

described above and reviewed the articles’ research designs and methodological considerations to 

determine whether each article provided empirical information on the effect of WIC participation 

on relevant nutrition, health, and program cost-effectiveness outcomes. These final documents 

included on the basis of this review process constitute the main body of evidence discussed in the 

literature review. 

C. Selection Issues in WIC Evaluations 

In the absence of a randomized experiment, a major concern in any program evaluation is 

whether the participants differ from nonparticipants in ways that are not observable by the 

researcher but that affect the outcomes. For instance, it may be that women who enroll in WIC are 

more motivated, more health conscious, and more concerned about good nutrition than women 

who are eligible for but do not enroll. If this is the case, WIC enrollees are likely to have better 

health outcomes or health-related behaviors than nonparticipants irrespective of the program. 

Conversely, if WIC is successful at reaching out to the population at the highest risk for adverse 

health outcomes, WIC participants may have poorer health outcomes than nonparticipants 

irrespective of the program. These unobserved factors that affect enrollment in WIC can lead to 

biased estimates of the effect of WIC (or selection bias). 

Because of the ethical concerns involved with any randomized evaluation of a widely available 

program with potential health benefits, researchers must rely on nonexperimental methods to 

understand the gains from participation in the WIC program. Researchers have employed several 

statistical approaches in an attempt to reduce selection bias from estimates of WIC impacts. The 

most widely applied method is to limit the sample to WIC-eligible women or children and apply a 

multivariate regression analysis to control for differences between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants. Unbiased estimates through multivariate regression, however, can be achieved only 

if all relevant covariates are controlled for, thereby eliminating omitted variable bias. 

Increasingly, researchers have used propensity score matching in an attempt to create more 

comparable treatment and comparison groups. Some suggest that the advantage of this method 

over multivariate regression analysis is that it produces treatment and comparison groups that are 

closer in terms of observed characteristics. It further eliminates the need for statistical adjustment 

once a balance in terms of covariates between the treatment and comparison groups is achieved. 

Estimates from multivariate regression models, on the other hand, are dependent on the correct 

specification of the relationship between the covariates and the outcome (the functional form). 

Another benefit of propensity score methods is that the specification of the propensity function, 

and therefore the selection of the treatment and comparison group, is independent of the outcome, 

and therefore the modeling is more objective. However, as is the case for multivariate regression 

analysis, propensity score methods are subject to omitted variable bias. A recent comparison of the 

two methods demonstrated the sensitivity of the propensity score methods to the richness of the 

covariates used to predict the propensity score, and identified no clear advantage of propensity score 

methods over multivariate regression analysis in terms of reducing bias (Shadish et al. 2008). 
9 

Numerous studies have tried using instrumental variables as a way of reducing selection bias, 

but attempts to find reliable and valid instruments for WIC participation have been largely 

unsuccessful. The challenge has been to find a variable that is a strong predictor of WIC enrollment 

but that affects health outcomes only through its impact on WIC participation. Researchers have 

used changes in federal policy, differences in state rules, and various measures of local access to 

WIC services as instruments to predict WIC participation. Generally, because of questions about 

the exogeneity of the employed instruments or as a result of low predictive power, attempts to 

reduce selection bias through this method have been largely ineffective. 

A handful of studies controlled for unobservable differences between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants through the use of family (or mother) fixed-effects on samples of siblings whose 

mother was enrolled in WIC during pregnancy or postpartum for one of the siblings but not the 

other or, in the case of child-WIC participation, one sibling was enrolled in WIC while the other was 

not. This design improves on more traditional multiple regression methods by controlling for the 

influence of time-invariant unobservable family characteristics; however, it does not eliminate bias 

from unobserved factors that change between the two pregnancies. Those changes in family 

circumstances may be driving both the mother’s decision to enroll in WIC and the differences in 

health outcomes between the siblings. Furthermore, studies using sibling fixed-effects models 

typically rely on survey data. Given the small number of discordant siblings that are eligible for this 

type of analysis, studies using a family fixed-effects model are limited by small sample sizes. 

Given the inherent problem of selection bias in evaluations not based on a random experiment, 

and the limitations of nonexperimental statistical methods in terms of addressing such bias, 

nonrandom evaluations can provide only suggestive evidence of program impacts. Therefore, 

caution and objectivity in interpreting the findings from existing WIC evaluations are warranted. 

D. Other Considerations 

WIC has undergone considerable changes over time in terms of the socioeconomic 

characteristics of participants and the level of program penetration. For example, between 1980 and 

2006, the proportion of pregnant women enrolled in WIC increased from 8.6 to 30 percent, and the 

proportion of infants enrolled increased from 14 to 51 percent (Besharov and Call 2009). This 

substantial increase in the WIC caseload has contributed to changes in the characteristics of WIC 

participants over time. These differences have likely influenced the impact of the program on 

participants’ outcomes, and might also have altered the direction of selection bias based on 

unobserved characteristics in estimates of program impacts based on nonexperimental methods. 

Although this report focuses on studies published since 2002, many of the studies reviewed are 

based on data collected in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Readers should be cautious in comparing 

findings from studies that use data from different time periods. 

The studies reviewed in this report also vary widely in terms of geographic coverage, which has 

important implications for interpretation of study findings. Some studies use nationally 

representative samples; but many are based on convenience samples and use data collected in 

selected hospitals, medical centers, cities, counties or states. For the evaluation of certain health 

outcomes, nationally representative data appropriate for studying the effect of WIC are simply not 

available. Studies based on convenience samples that cover a small geographic area still provide 

useful information about the effectiveness of WIC as implemented in the particular area. However, 

such findings are not likely to generalize to the WIC population as a whole. The characteristics of 

the populations included in convenience samples are not likely to represent the characteristics of the 
10 

national WIC population. In addition, local WIC offices have considerable discretion in how they 

operate the nutrition education, breastfeeding promotion, and referral components of the WIC 

program. Both these issues are likely to influence the relationship between WIC participation and a 

particular outcome. 

In interpreting the research findings reported in this review, readers should avoid merely 

counting the number of studies that fall on one side of a question, as this will not necessarily lead to 

valid conclusions. Rather, readers should consider the merits of each individual study, taking into 

account the advantages and disadvantages of the research design, the time period covered by the 

data, and the geographic coverage of the study sample. 
11 

II. IMPACTS ON PREGNANCY AND BIRTH OUTCOMES 

The literature search uncovered 15 studies that evaluated the association between WIC 

participation and birth- and pregnancy-related outcomes. The most commonly evaluated birth 

outcomes in the identified studies are measures of birth weight (such as mean birth weight, the rate 

of low (< 2,500 g) or very low (< 1,500 g) birth weight), measures of gestational age (such as length 

of gestation in weeks or rate of preterm [< 37 weeks] delivery), and measures of fetal growth 

restriction (such as small-for-gestational-age or term low birth weight). Less common outcomes 

include the incidence of fetal death and whether the infant was placed in neonatal intensive care 

after delivery. Fourteen studies evaluated one or more of these birth outcomes. Three evaluated 

pregnancy-related mediating factors such as the mother’s weight gain during pregnancy or 

modifiable risk behaviors, such as smoking during pregnancy. Table II.1 presents a summary of the 

data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, and a summary of findings for 

all 15 studies. 

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

Studies examining the effect of prenatal WIC participation on pregnancy and birth outcomes 

employed several design and analysis strategies to address selection bias. Six studies used a 

multivariate regression analysis controlling for a detailed set of personal characteristics such as 

demographic characteristics of the mother, family socioeconomic factors, and health-related risks 

and behaviors (Bitler and Currie 2005; Joyce et al. 2005; Brodsky et al. 2009; Reichman et al. 2003; 

El-Bastawissi et al. 2007; Cox 2009). Many of these restricted their analysis to a subsample of 

women who were more homogeneous in terms of important observed characteristics, a strategy that 

may have reduced the differences between prenatal WIC participants and nonparticipants in terms 

of unobserved characteristics as well. Joyce et al. (2005), for example, argued that the timing of the 

first prenatal visit is likely correlated with the mother’s motivation for a healthy pregnancy, and 

therefore limited their sample to women who initiated prenatal care in the first trimester. Another 

common strategy is to stratify the sample by maternal characteristics associated with adverse birth 

outcomes such as age or prepregnancy BMI, with the expectation that the effects of participation 

should be greater among those at the highest risk for adverse birth outcomes (Bitler and Currie 

2005). 

Four studies used propensity score methods to adjust for differences between WIC participants 

and the comparison group (Lazariu-Bauer et al. 2004; Rivera 2008; Gueorguieva et al. 2009; Foster 

et al. 2010). Lazariu-Bauer et al. (2004), for example, used a propensity score analysis to evaluate the 

effect of early enrollment in WIC using WIC participants who enrolled late, and therefore for a 

shorter period of time as the comparison group. The authors found that the unadjusted estimates 

were not statistically different from the estimates produced by the propensity score analyses. In a 

more recent evaluation, Gueorguieva et al. (2009) used both multiple regression analysis and a 

propensity function method with a rich set of covariates on mother’s demographic characteristics, 

adverse medical history, prior pregnancy experience, high-risk behavior such as smoking, and 

income. The estimates from the two models were virtually identical, which suggests that the two 

methods performed equally well in terms of reducing bias from observed factors. Bias from 

unobserved factors in both sets of estimates may still be present. 

Two studies employed a family (or mother) fixed-effects model on samples of siblings whose 

mother was enrolled in WIC during pregnancy for one of the siblings but not the other (KowaleskiJones and Duncan 2002; Foster et al. 2010). As noted earlier, this design improves on traditional 
12 

multiple regression methods by controlling for the influence of time-invariant unobservable family 

characteristics; however, it does not eliminate bias from unobserved factors that change between the 

two pregnancies. For example, a pregnant woman with a prior adverse birth outcome (such as a 

low-birth-weight infant) may be more likely to engage in health behavior that would reduce her risk 

of a subsequent adverse birth outcome, one of which may be enrollment in WIC during a 

subsequent pregnancy. Furthermore, because of the complexity of linking sibling pairs in 

administrative records such as birth certificates, Medicaid files, and WIC records, studies using 

sibling fixed-effects models typically rely on survey data. Given the small number of discordant 

siblings that are eligible for this type of analysis, studies using a family fixed-effects model are limited 

by small sample sizes. The number of discordant sibling pairs was 71 and 245 in Kowaleski-Jones 

and Duncan (2002) and Foster et al. (2010), respectively. 

Most recently, Figlio et al. (2009) employed an instrumental variable approach in an attempt to 

reduce selection bias. The authors used a change in a federal policy regulating the income 

documentation requirement that had the effect of increasing the burden of application for those 

who are not adjunctively eligible in Florida. The policy’s differential impact on the two populations 

served as the instrument to predict WIC participation. However, the change in the policy is likely to 

lead to compositional changes in the WIC population, since the relative ease and burden of 

application for the different populations will affect the “type” of women who apply for WIC. This 

concern over the validity of the study’s instrument suggests caution in interpreting the findings. 

Some researchers have used a “dose-response” design that compares the outcomes of WIC 

participants with varying length of participation (Lazariu-Bauer et al. 2004; Joyce et al. 2008; 

Gueorguieva et al. 2009; Yunzal-Butler et al. 2010). The advantage of this design is that all members 

in the study sample were eligible for WIC and made the decision to enroll at some point during 

pregnancy. However, confounding from unobserved factors that are related to both the timing of 

enrollment and birth outcomes is likely present. 

B. Other Methodological Considerations 

Gestational age bias. Arguably the most important source of bias in the evaluation of 

prenatal WIC participation is gestational age bias. In brief, women whose pregnancies last longer are 

less likely to experience an adverse birth outcome, and the longer a pregnancy goes, the greater the 

opportunity for a woman to enroll in WIC. Put differently, women who enroll in WIC late in 

pregnancy are more likely to have positive birth outcomes simply because of longer gestation, not 

because of WIC. For example, a large proportion of infants delivered prematurely (before the 37th 

week of pregnancy) have low birth weight. As a result, women who enroll in WIC in their third 

trimester tend to have better birth outcomes simply because their pregnancy lasted longer, not 

because they participated in WIC. 

This source of bias is best illustrated in Joyce et al. (2008), who presented a simple plot of the 

rate of low-birth-weight and preterm delivery by the week of pregnancy women enrolled in WIC, 

using data from the Pregnancy Nutrition Surveillance System (PNSS). As demonstrated by the 

authors, the rate of low birth weight varied little by week of enrollment in WIC between the 5th and 

the 23rd week of pregnancy, and began to decline continuously in the later months. The presence of 

this bias is likely to create a positive correlation between WIC participation and gestational age and 

birth weight, irrespective of the effectiveness of WIC. Failure to adjust for this anomaly will 

produce estimates that likely overstate the true impact of WIC. 
13 

Existing studies have attempted to correct for gestational age bias in several ways. One 

approach is to include length of gestation as a covariate in models of birth weight. Another is to 

evaluate the effect of WIC on fetal growth. A common measure of fetal growth restriction applied 

in this literature is the incidence of small-for-gestational-age infants, generally defined as the 

proportion of infants with a birth weight below the 10th percentile for a given gestational age. 

Alternatively, researchers have stratified their sample based on length of gestation and evaluated the 

association between WIC and measures of birth weight within each stratum. Common 

categorizations of gestational length are full term (≥37 weeks), preterm (<37 weeks), moderately 

preterm (34-36 weeks), and extremely preterm (<34 weeks) births. 

The inclusion of gestational age as a covariate in models of birth weight greatly diminishes the 

magnitude of the impact estimates and in some cases reduces or even eliminates the statistical 

significance of the findings. Furthermore, the association between WIC participation and fetal 

growth is generally weaker than its association with birth weight unadjusted for gestational age and 

length of gestation (Joyce et al. 2005; Gueorguieva et al. 2009; Joyce et al. 2008). Some interpreted 

this finding to mean that WIC was associated with prolonged gestation as well as increased birth 

weight, and hence by controlling for gestational age in models of birth outcomes, we underestimate 

the effect of WIC (Bitler and Currie 2005). Others argued that the threat of bias in the estimates of 

WIC’s effectiveness from the spurious correlation between gestational age and WIC enrollment is a 

larger concern, and therefore stressed the importance of eliminating this source of bias from impact 

estimates (Joyce et al. 2005; Joyce et al. 2008). Citing the evidence from clinical trials that provide 

little support to the claim that nutritional supplementation can reduce the incidence of preterm 

delivery, some researchers stressed the importance of focusing on measures of fetal growth rather 

than improvements in birth weight that result from a reduction in preterm deliveries. 

Mediating factors. Increasingly, researchers are putting more emphasis on evaluating the 

possible mechanisms through which WIC affects birth outcomes. As noted previously, nutritional 

supplementation is the main service provided under the WIC program; however, services such as 

nutritional education and referral to health and social services, including referral to substance abuse 

counseling and treatment, may all be important factors that contribute to improvements in birth 

outcomes. Establishing a link between WIC participation and intermediate outcomes such as 

appropriate weight gain and the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy, both of which are 

important predictors of birth weight, could provide support for a causal relationship. 

Two studies in this review looked at the relationship between prenatal WIC participation and 

weight gain during pregnancy (Bitler and Currie 2005; Joyce et al. 2008). Both used average weight 

gain in pounds as the outcome measure. One potential concern with this measure, however, is that 

the Institute of Medicine pregnancy weight gain guidelines recommend a higher weight gain for 

women who are underweight prior to pregnancy and a lower gain for obese women, a difference 

that is not captured by looking only at the average gain in weight. Only one of the studies evaluated 

this outcome among women who were underweight prior to pregnancy (Joyce et al. 2008). For this 

subgroup, a higher increase associated with WIC can be interpreted as a positive outcome. Three 

studies evaluated the effect of WIC on smoking either during or after pregnancy (Joyce et al. 2008; 

Yunzal-Butler et al. 2010; Brodsky et al. 2009). The challenge of using smoking as an outcome is 

that it is generally not well reported in vital statistics data, which are the primary source for WIC 

evaluations and often do not contain enough detail to evaluate the timing of WIC enrollment and 

smoking behavior. 
14 

Some researchers consider prenatal care an important mediating factor, recognizing that WIC 

encourages care and potentially provides a link to such care; they argue that including prenatal care 

as a covariate will understate the true impact of WIC. Others argue that prenatal care and WIC are 

chosen simultaneously, and therefore prenatal care is a potential confounding factor (for example, if 

women who seek prenatal care early also enroll in WIC early, we cannot separate the influences of 

the two.) A few studies in this review evaluated WIC’s effect on the timing of first prenatal visit or 

the adequacy of prenatal care, but given the issues of simultaneity and the difficulty of determining 

the timing of care relative to the timing of WIC enrollment in the available data sources, we do not 

discuss the findings on the association between WIC and prenatal care. 

Lack of focus on magnitude of impacts. One major limitation of the literature on the impact 

of prenatal WIC participation is the focus on statistically significant findings, without consideration 

for whether the magnitude of the impacts is clinically meaningful or plausible (Yunzal-Butler et al. 

2010). Most of the recent WIC evaluations are based on administrative data from birth and WIC 

records from individual or multiple states. The large sample sizes and the multiple hypothesis testing 

across different outcomes or subgroups are likely to produce statistically significant findings. 

Therefore, the interpretation of the findings in the context of the clinical literature is important. 

C. Summary of Key Findings 

As was the case in the earlier generation of WIC evaluations, recent studies of the effect of 

prenatal WIC participation have consistently found a positive association with gestational age and 

mean birth weight and a negative one with the incidence of low and very low birth weight when the 

estimates are not adjusted for gestational age bias. These findings are typically consistent across 

studies regardless of study methods and data source. Estimates for mean birth weight unadjusted 

for gestational age are typically moderate. Estimates for the incidence of low and very low birth 

weight unadjusted for gestational age generally suggest substantial improvements associated with 

WIC. For example, Bitler and Currie (2005) found a nearly 30 percent reduction in the rate of low 

birth weight and a 54 percent reduction in the rate of very low birth weight. Given that the majority 

of low-birth-weight infants are born premature, the estimates for measures of gestational age, such 

as the incidence of preterm delivery, are generally in line with the estimates of the rate of low and 

very low birth weight. In contrast, the evidence on the association between prenatal WIC 

participation and measures of fetal growth is less consistent. Generally, the magnitude of the 

impacts is substantially smaller than the estimates for unadjusted measures of birth weight. A few 

studies found a weak or no association (Joyce et al. 2005; Foster et al. 2010; Rivera 2008), and a few 

found sizable effects (Bitler and Currie 2005; Figlio 2009). 

Outcomes related to birth weight and gestational age have largely been the focus of prenatal 

WIC evaluations. Relatively few studies examined other pregnancy-related outcomes. The evidence 

on the association between prenatal WIC participation and mediating factors such as weight gain 

during pregnancy and smoking is therefore limited. Two studies suggested that WIC may reduce the 

likelihood of smoking during pregnancy (Brodsky et al. 2009; Yunzal et al. 2010). However, as 

Yunzal et al. (2010) noted, there is some evidence to suggest that women who enroll in WIC are also 

more likely to quit smoking prior to enrollment. Therefore, the association between smoking 

cessation and WIC may be spurious and should be interpreted with caution. The findings from 

Brodsky et al. (2009) are mixed, with no clear evidence of a positive WIC effect. Recent research 

has provided no clear evidence of an association between WIC and adequate weight gain during 

pregnancy. Findings from the only study that evaluated the average weight gain among underweight 
15 

women found mixed results: a positive association with first-trimester enrollment in WIC and a 

negative association with third-trimester enrollment. 

D. Research Results 

Birth outcomes 

Using data on discordant sibling pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), 

Kowaleski-Jones and Duncan (2002) were the first to apply a mother fixed-effects model to estimate 

the impact of prenatal WIC participation on birth weight. The authors advanced the literature by 

introducing the potential utility of using maternal fixed-effects. As discussed above, this model 

eliminates selection bias from time-invariant characteristics of the mother but not from time-variant 

unobserved characteristics that can affect both enrollment in WIC and birth outcomes. To reduce 

this source of bias, the authors included maternal smoking and drinking during each pregnancy, 

prenatal Food Stamp participation, and family income in the year prior to each birth as additional 

controls in the model. 

Findings from the fixed-effects model suggest a marginally significant (p<0.1) positive impact 

on (logged) birth weight. The magnitude of the impact is large compared to previous estimates: an 

increase of 185 g in birth weight associated with prenatal WIC participation; the authors’ inability to 

control for gestational age bias is likely a contributing factor. As the authors note, mothers’ report 

of gestational age in the NLSY is unreliable and therefore of little value for addressing this source of 

bias. As discussed earlier, the small sample of discordant sibling pairs in national surveys that can be 

used for WIC evaluations significantly limits the sample size available for analysis. This is true for 

the sample employed in Kowaleski-Jones and Duncan (2002), who relied on a sample of 71 

discordant siblings for the estimation of the fixed-effects model, which raises questions about the 

generalizability of the findings. 

The authors also evaluated the association between WIC and birth weight by applying ordinary 

least squares (OLS) to the full NLSY sample. This analysis produced unexpected results. The mean 

family income of WIC participants in the sample was about $20,000 but was over $50,000 in the full 

sample, which indicates a large disparity between WIC participants and nonparticipants in the full 

sample. Yet in regressions adjusted only for the child’s race and order of birth, prenatal WIC 

participation was positively associated with mean birth weight, a striking result given clearly adverse 

selection into WIC in their full sample. 

Reichman and Teitler (2003) used data collected from women enrolled in New Jersey’s 

HealthStart program between 1988 and 1996 to evaluate the effect of a wide range of prenatal care 

services, including WIC, on birth weight and the likelihood of low birth weight. The authors 

employed multivariate regression analysis to control for a rich set of behavioral and psychosocial risk 

factors. They found a positive association between WIC participation and birth weight and a 

negative association between WIC and the odds of low birth weight. The sample consisted of 

relatively high-risk women: 81 percent of the sample participated in WIC prenatally. Secondary 

analysis on the 21 percent of the sample who were identified as having inadequate nutrition and 

were therefore referred to nutritional education services as well as WIC produced similar results, 

with a somewhat higher impact on mean birth weight. After addressing gestational age bias by 

repeating the analysis on a subsample of women who initiated care in the first or second trimester, 

the authors concluded that their estimates remained unchanged. This strategy is effective in 

reducing gestational age bias only if the timing of the first prenatal visit and enrollment in WIC are 
16 

closely related. If a substantial number of women who enrolled in WIC late in the pregnancy 

initiated care in the first or second trimester, this strategy will not eliminate gestational age bias. 

Two issues need to be considered when interpreting the study findings. First, the sample used 

in this study consisted of pregnant women who enrolled in New Jersey’s HealthStart program, the 

goal of which is to provide comprehensive prenatal care services with an individualized plan based 

on assessment of medical, nutritional, and psychosocial risks. Therefore, participation in other 

services, such as nutrition-related education, substance abuse treatment, smoking cessation, and 

home visitation, was also very high in the sample (for example, 98 percent participated in basic 

nutrition-related education services). While the authors control for all the complementary services 

the pregnant women received, the high rates of participation in related services raise issues of 

multicollinearity and about the interpretation of the WIC coefficient. In other words, the coefficient 

on WIC may reflect only the WIC services that are not also covered by the other programs, which 

seems to be food supplementation. Second, the coefficients on some of the services, such as 

substance abuse treatment and professional home visitation, indicate that those treatments are 

associated with an increase in the rate of low birth weight, even when controlling for psychosocial 

and behavioral risk factors such as smoking and drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. As the 

authors pointed out, it is unlikely that these services were the cause of the adverse birth outcome. 

Rather, the association between these services and birth weight reflects the bias from selection on 

unobserved factors. 

Lazariu-Bauer et al. (2004) used data from New York State vital statistics and WIC 

administrative records to study the link between the length of prenatal WIC participation and fetal 

growth. One of the strengths of this study is the unique data that enabled the authors to construct a 

measure of WIC participation based on the timing of WIC enrollment and the length of 

participation as determined from the WIC check redemption files. In addition, they used propensity 

score matching to create a sample of early and late WIC enrollees who were similar in terms of 

observed characteristics available from birth certificate data and WIC records. The study found a 

positive link between length of WIC participation and birth weight among both full-term and 

preterm infants. The impacts are greater for blacks and Hispanics compared to whites, and greater 

for women with inadequate prenatal care compared to women with intermediate or adequate care 

(based on Kotelchuck’s Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization index). 

The estimates based on the propensity score analysis were similar to the unadjusted differences 

in the birth weight between early and late enrollees. The authors suggested that this could be an 

indication that selection bias is not an issue if researchers compare outcomes between early and late 

WIC enrollees with similar gestational length. An alternative interpretation would be that the 

observable characteristics are not capturing the unobserved differences between the two groups of 

women—factors that motivate some women to enroll early during pregnancy while leaving others to 

delay enrollment until later, and that are likely correlated with birth outcomes. 

Bitler and Currie (2005) used data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System 

(PRAMS) from 1992 to 1999 to evaluate the relationship between prenatal WIC participation and a 

range of birth and pregnancy outcomes. Using data on a sample of women whose delivery was paid 

for by Medicaid, the authors employed a multiple regression analysis using detailed person-level 

covariates as well as dichotomous indicators of all state-year combinations to control for state 

characteristics and policies that may have affected birth outcomes. The authors demonstrated that 

among the income-eligible women (as determined by Medicaid participation), WIC participants were 

negatively selected based on a number of observable characteristics such as race, education, age, and 
17 

obesity. Still, the authors found that WIC participation is associated with (1) substantial and 

statistically significant improvements in birth weight and gestational age (including measures of low 

and very low birth weight and rate of premature and very premature delivery), (2) a reduction in the 

number of days the infant or mother spent in the hospital, and (3) a reduction in the likelihood that 

an infant was held in an intensive care unit after birth. These findings hold true for the full sample 

of women as well as for the three subgroups evaluated by the authors: (1) women who received aid 

in the previous year, (2) single women over age 18 who are high school dropouts, and (3) teens. 

The significance of this study is the more detailed data on maternal characteristics and 

outcomes in PRAMS than had been available from the linkage of birth certificates and 

administrative data prior to this study. However, the estimates do not take into account gestational 

age bias and therefore likely overstate the true impact of WIC. In addition, secondary analysis by the 

authors revealed little support for the argument that estimated WIC effects should be larger for 

women who are seemingly less negatively selected. Among the three subgroups evaluated by the 

authors, single high school dropouts over age 18 seem to be the least negatively selected based on 

observed characteristics. Among this group, African American women and heavy smokers were less 

likely to enroll in WIC. Having the father’s information on the birth certificate was positively 

associated with WIC enrollment. On the other hand, obese women were more likely to enroll 

(compared to those who were not obese). Secondary analysis by the authors revealed no differential 

WIC effect for five of the six measures of birth weight and gestational age for this subgroup (single 

high school dropouts over 18). The effect of WIC on one of the measures (the likelihood of low 

birth weight), is greater for this subgroup, though this finding is only marginally significant (p<0.1). 

Bitler and Currie (2005) evaluated WIC’s effectiveness on two measures of fetal growth that are 

free of gestational age bias: (1) having a birth weight below the 10th percentile for a given gestational 

age, and (2) having a birth weight below the 25th percentile for a given gestational age. Their 

findings for both measures are statistically significant, although the magnitude of the impacts is 

substantially smaller compared to the estimates for the likelihood of low and very low birth weight. 

Secondary analysis provided no evidence of a differential impact for the three subgroups of women. 

The estimate for one of the measures of fetal growth (weight-for-gestation < 10th percentile) 

suggests that WIC had less of an effect among single dropouts; however, this finding is only 

marginally significant. 

Joyce et al. (2005) used data from New York City birth certificates to estimate the changing 

association between WIC and measures of birth weight and fetal growth over a 14-year span (1988-

2001) during which prenatal WIC participation grew dramatically as a response to the Medicaid 

eligibility expansions. The authors limited their sample to women whose delivery was paid for by 

Medicaid and applied multiple regression analysis controlling for all relevant covariates available on 

the birth certificates. To further address the issue of selection bias, the authors performed separate 

analyses on subgroups of women who were more homogeneous in terms of their observed 

characteristics, such as those who initiated prenatal care early (in the first trimester) and who had 

had no previous live births. The authors’ motivation for the subgroup analyses was the assumption 

that women who are similar in their observed health-related behaviors (such as initiation of prenatal 

care) are also similar in terms of unobserved characteristics that affect the birth outcomes of their 

infants. Furthermore, limiting the sample to first births reduces the bias from prior experiences with 

WIC or history of adverse birth outcomes. A disadvantage of limiting the sample to women who 

initiate prenatal care early is that it excludes from the sample the subset of WIC population who 

initiate care late and who are arguably at higher risk of adverse birth outcomes and have the most to 
18 

 

gain from participating in WIC. Therefore, the findings based on a sample limited to women with 

early prenatal care may not generalize to the broader WIC population. 

Based on the analysis of women with singleton births, the estimates for birth outcomes 

unadjusted for gestational age (mean birth weight, rate of low and very low birth weight, gestational 

age, and rate of preterm delivery) suggest that WIC is associated with statistically significant, but 

small, improvements in all outcomes between 1988 and 1992. The effects dissipate over time, 

though some remain statistically significant. Citing the lack of clinical evidence to support the 

relationship between the services provided through WIC and length of gestation, and the presence 

of gestational age bias in the above estimates, the authors took a conservative approach and 

cautioned against attributing these findings to WIC. Instead, they focused attention on measures of 

fetal growth, such as birth weight adjusted for gestation, the likelihood of small-for-gestational-age 

infant, and the rate of term low birth weight. The findings for all three measures provide little 

evidence of WIC’s effectiveness among singleton births. There is some suggestive evidence that 

WIC improves fetal growth among twin deliveries, which have a higher risk of adverse birth 

outcomes. The improvements are limited to infants of African American women born in the United 

States. An important caveat to these modest effects is that the indicator for WIC participation is 

self-reported, with no information on the length or intensity of enrollment. Nondifferential 

misclassification bias would attenuate an association. 

Similar to the findings in Bitler and Currie (2005), among the full sample of Medicaid-financed 

births in Joyce et al. (2005) there was seemingly negative selection into WIC on observable 

characteristics. Racial and ethnic minorities, women with low levels of education, teens, and 

unmarried women were more likely to participate in WIC and were also more likely to have adverse 

birth outcomes. The lack of protective WIC effect could be attributed to the negative selection of 

women into WIC. However, the observed negative selection remained stable throughout the study 

period, yet the estimated effects of WIC participation on birth outcomes diminished over time. A 

plot of unadjusted rate of low birth weight over time reveals that while both WIC participants and 

eligible nonparticipants experienced an improvement in this outcome between 1988 and 2001, the 

rate of low birth weight decreased faster among nonparticipants. Thus, the seemingly diminishing 

impact of WIC from the regression models is due to the relatively greater improvement in birth 

outcomes among nonparticipants. Given the relatively stable observed characteristics of WIC and 

non-WIC participants over time, and the changing association between WIC and birth outcomes, it 

is likely that the relationship between observed and unobserved characteristics is more complex than 

Bitler and Currie (2005) suggest. Changes in the composition of both groups in terms of unobserved 

characteristics may be responsible for the changing association between WIC and birth outcomes 

over time.3

Analyzing data on Florida births linked with WIC and public school records, Figlio et al. (2009) 

employed an instrumental variable approach to study the effect of prenatal WIC participation on 

birth weight and rate of low birth weight. They exploited a 1999 change in the income-reporting 

requirements that affected applicants not adjunctively eligible for WIC. The authors used 

information on the older sibling’s participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 

3 For a discussion of the conflicting findings in Joyce et al. (2005) and Bitler and Currie (2005), see Ludwig and 

Miller (2005). 
19 

the year before, during, and after the mother was pregnant with the index child to classify women as 

marginally eligible or ineligible for WIC. Specifically, women whose school-aged children received 

free or reduced-price lunches through the NSLP in the year the mothers were pregnant but not in 

the adjacent years were characterized as marginally eligible. Mothers whose school-age children 

received free or reduced-price lunches in either the year before or after (or both before and after) 

their pregnancy but not during, were characterized as marginally ineligible for WIC. The instrument 

employed by the authors is the interaction of the policy change and the eligibility indicator. 

The OLS estimates employed by the authors found no association between WIC and birth 

weight conditional on gestational age but found a small positive association with gestational age in 

weeks. The estimates changed dramatically when the authors used the instrumental variable 

approach. The findings from this model suggest a statistically significant 12.9 percent reduction in 

the incidence of low birth weight conditional on gestational age, which represents a 120 percent 

decline given the mean of 10.7 percent among the marginally eligible. Findings from the 

instrumental variable model found no association with average birth weight, gestational age in 

weeks, or rate of preterm delivery. 

The study demonstrated the challenges of applying instrumental variables to prenatal WIC 

participation, a finding consistent with previous literature. It is not clear how accurately the year-toyear status of an older sibling’s participation in NSLP captures income eligibility for WIC. 

Furthermore, the authors limited their sample to newborns with school-aged siblings with matched 

school records who had a specific pattern of participation in the NSLP around the time of the 

mother’s pregnancy with the index child. Their analysis sample was thus restricted to less than 1 

percent of the total births in Florida, which limits the generalizability of even robust findings. 

Foster et al. (2010) analyzed data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child 

Development Supplement to study the relationship between prenatal WIC participation and birth 

weight, gestational age, and fetal growth. The authors used two methods in an attempt to address 

the issue of selection into WIC: propensity score matching and mother fixed-effects. The estimates 

based on the propensity-score-matched sample suggest no significant impacts on any of the 

outcomes based on the full sample or the sample restricted to Medicaid participants. In an attempt 

to reduce recall bias for reported WIC participation during pregnancy, the authors also analyzed a 

subsample of matched children younger than 7. For this subsample, the estimates suggested a 7-

percentage-point increase in the probability of a small-for-gestational-age infant associated with WIC. 

Estimates based on the fixed-effect model suggest a positive association between WIC and 

birth weight and a negative association between WIC and the incidence of low birth weight and 

preterm delivery. None of these estimates are adjusted for gestational age bias. The association 

between small-for-gestational-age infants and WIC is negative based on the fixed-effects model, but 

not statistically significant. Foster et al. (2010) estimated their fixed-effects model using OLS 

regression on a sample of 1,742 matched sibling pairs; however, only 245 sibling pairs in their 

sample varied in terms of mother’s prenatal WIC participation. It is not clear how the inclusion of 

the nondiscordant sibling pairs affects the sign, magnitude, and precision of the estimated 

coefficients. 

In another study based on data from Florida, Gueorguieva et al. (2009) evaluated the doseresponse relationship between prenatal WIC participation and fetal growth, using the incidence of 

small-for-gestational-age infants as the outcome measure. Using data from birth certificates linked 

with Medicaid eligibility files and WIC administrative records, the authors restricted their sample to 
20 

singleton births between 1996 and 2004 to women whose prenatal care or delivery was paid for by 

Medicaid and who participated in WIC prenatally. Unlike in most WIC evaluations that used a 

dichotomous measure of WIC participation, Gueorguieva and colleagues evaluated the effect of the 

relative length of WIC participation, which they defined as the percentage of pregnancy enrolled in 

WIC. They estimated propensity scores for WIC participation using a rich set of demographic 

characteristics and health risk factors as covariates and divided the sample into five approximately 

equal-sized groups based on the range of propensity scores. They estimated program impacts within 

each group and for the overall sample using the weighted average of the estimates based on the five 

strata. The study found that longer WIC participation is associated with a reduction in the risk of 

small-for-gestational-age infants among full-term, preterm, and very preterm births, but not among 

extremely preterm (23-28 weeks) deliveries. While the findings are statistically significant, the 

reduction in the incidence of fetal growth restriction is modest. Results from multiple regression 

analyses produced estimates very similar to those based on the propensity function method. 

Joyce et al. (2008) also evaluated the dose-response effect of prenatal WIC participation; 

however, unlike Gueorguieva et al. (2009), they used as the comparison women who enrolled in 

WIC for the first time postpartum. Using data from the PNSS from nine states, the authors 

evaluated the differential impact of WIC among women who enrolled during their first, second, or 

third trimester. The authors attempted to address selection into WIC by employing a multiple 

regression analysis and by evaluating program impacts among three groups of women who were at 

high risk for adverse birth outcomes and had a potentially greater need for WIC services. These 

included women who were underweight prior to pregnancy, women who smoked prior to 

pregnancy, and women with multiple gestations. The goal was to lessen heterogeneity among WIC 

participants and to focus on groups for whom nutritional supplementation is likely to be most 

helpful. 

Results based on the full sample revealed that prenatal participants had better birth outcomes 

than postpartum participants, regardless of when in the pregnancy they enrolled in WIC. However, 

for all outcomes (mean birth weight, rate of low and very low birth weight, and rate of preterm 

delivery) the effects are larger among third-trimester enrollees than among women who enrolled in 

the first trimester. The authors attributed such counterintuitive findings to gestational age bias, as 

none of their estimates were adjusted for gestational age. As noted previously, the authors 

demonstrated this source of bias in a simple plot of the rate of low birth weight and preterm delivery 

by the week of pregnancy in which women enrolled in WIC. The authors therefore focused the 

attention on measures of fetal growth, such as birth weight adjusted for gestational age, the 

incidence of small-for-gestational-age infant, and the incidence of term low birth weight infant. The 

findings suggest statistically significant but modest improvements associated with prenatal WIC 

participation in all measures. Furthermore, the improvements were greater among women who 

enrolled in WIC in their first trimester than among those who enrolled in their second trimester. 

The findings for the subgroups of high-risk women were very similar to the findings among the full 

sample. In addition to birth outcomes, Joyce et al. 2008 evaluated whether early enrollment in WIC 

is associated with smoking cessation (as assessed during a postpartum interview) among women who 

reported smoking three months before pregnancy. They found no meaningful association. 

Hoynes et al. (2009) used data on birth weight aggregated on the county level and employed a 

difference-in-differences analysis that exploited the variation in the timing of the opening of WIC 

offices across the counties in the United States between 1972 and 1979. The idea was to exploit the 

“rollout” of WIC as an exogenous source of variation in exposure. To the extent that WIC was 

randomly assigned to counties in the early 1970s, the “reduced-form” regression of county-level 
21 

birth outcomes on the presence of a WIC program provides an unbiased estimate of exposure to 

WIC. The authors found that the introduction of WIC is associated with an increase in mean birth 

weight of approximately 2 grams. They then inflated the 2 grams by a 1980 estimate of county-level 

participation in WIC of about 8 percent. Thus, they estimated that the increase in mean birth weight 

associated with WIC was around 29 grams (2.3 grams/0.08). 

An important contribution of Hoynes et al. (2009) is the use of the introduction of WIC as a 

plausibly exogenous change in availability. This relatively “clean” identification strategy has been 

difficult to achieve in WIC evaluations. However, there are two difficulties with this approach. 

First, if on average only 10 percent of women in a county participate in WIC, the reduced-form 

estimates will be small, and researchers must assert that they have isolated the county-level change in 

birth outcomes attributable to the introduction of WIC from spurious changes in birth outcomes of 

the other 90 percent of women who are unaffected by the introduction of WIC. Second, the 

authors’ estimate of county-level WIC participation came from a 1980 survey that is about 10 years 

after introduction of WIC and is not obtained from an exogenous change in WIC availability. 

Ideally, an estimate of the effect of treatment on the treated would have come from the ratio of two 

reduced-form regressions: (1) birth outcomes on the availability of WIC, and (2) WIC participation 

on the availability of WIC. However, the authors could not estimate the latter because they lacked 

data on WIC participation at the county level during the rollout period. 

El-Bastawissi et al. (2007) used vital statistics data on births and fetal deaths from Washington 

State linked to WIC administrative data and evaluated the association between WIC prenatal 

participation and fetal death as well as measures of preterm delivery and birth weight. Their analysis 

began with a fully specified model that included a measure of WIC participation interacted with a 

large number of covariates such as race, age, education, marital status, history of prior births and 

abortions, prenatal care adequacy, and obstetric risk factors. The authors evaluated the significance 

of each interaction term using the likelihood ratio test and only retained the ones that produced a pvalue less than 0.05. The final models for each outcome therefore contained a different set of 

interaction terms. For example, in the case of two measures of preterm delivery and a measure of 

normal preterm birth weight, the authors provided estimates of WIC’s impact on eight subgroups 

defined based on history of abortion and adequacy of prenatal care ranging from “no abortion, 

adequate care” to “abortion, inadequate care.” Most of the point estimates suggest implausibly large 

effects (for example, 80 percent reduction in fetal deaths among women with less than high school 

education and 70 percent reduction among women with some college education). 

Cox (2009) used data from PRAMS in eight states from 1996 to 2003 to associate the adequacy 

of prenatal care, the site of prenatal care, and infant outcomes for prenatal WIC participants and 

women who were eligible for WIC but did not participate. The motivation was to address the 

comment by Bitler and Currie (2005) that WIC is more than nutritional supplementation because it 

offers participants advice on health and nutrition and may increase the utilization of prenatal care. 

The author created an index of optimal prenatal medical care by combining measures of prenatal 

care utilization, health promotion advice received, and enrollment in WIC. Women were 

categorized as receiving optimal care during pregnancy if their prenatal care was at least adequate as 

measured by Kotelchuck’s Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization index; if they reported that they 

had received advice on 8 of 10 behaviors such as smoking, drinking, breastfeeding, seat belt use, and 

HIV testing; and they were enrolled in WIC some time during pregnancy. With this index, Cox 

created four categories of care: (1) optimal (adequate care and adequate advice); (2) underutilized 

(inadequate care, adequate advice); (3) underinformed (adequate care, inadequate advice); and (4) 

deficient (inadequate care and advice). She then compared each category of care for WIC and non-
22 

WIC women. In general, women not on WIC had higher odds of adverse birth outcomes (low birth 

weight and preterm birth) than women on WIC. Among women on WIC, those with deficient care 

had no greater risk of low or very low birth weight than women with optimal care. Thus, the most 

important differences in birth outcomes occurred between WIC and non-WIC women, and Cox’s 

findings are essentially similar to those of Bitler and Currie (2005), which is not surprising given that 

they both used PRAMS with substantial overlap in states and years. 

Cox advanced the literature by trying to distinguish the effects of prenatal care and health 

advice from those of nutritional supplementation. However, the author’s data are too crude to 

identify causal pathways. PRAMS does not contain information about the timing of WIC 

enrollment, and therefore it cannot be determined whether women initiate prenatal care and then 

enroll in WIC or whether enrollment in WIC induces women to obtain more prenatal care. 

Furthermore, the index of advice employed in the study did not distinguish between types of advice. 

The advice regarding breastfeeding and seat belt use, for instance, would not be expected to affect 

birth outcomes, whereas advice about smoking or nutritional supplementation could have an impact. 

A finer classification of the type of advice would have been more useful. 

Rivera (2008) evaluated the association between prenatal WIC participation and birth outcomes 

using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). To minimize 

observed differences between WIC participants and the comparison group, Rivera employed 

propensity score matching and limited the analysis to a subsample of children with propensity scores 

in the top two quartiles. For children with scores in the bottom two quartiles, the matching 

procedure did not achieve a balance in the covariates between WIC participants and nonparticipants. 

Findings based on the sample of 1,919 children in the top quartile (with a propensity score ≥0.8275) 

parallel the findings reported for most studies reviewed in this report: an increase in mean birth 

weight and a reduction in the rate of very low birth weight unadjusted for length of gestation, and 

no significant association between WIC and measures of fetal growth (small-for-gestational age). 

Other Pregnancy Related Outcomes 

Yunzal-Butler et al. (2010) used data from the PNSS from eight states to evaluate the 

association between maternal smoking behavior and the timing of WIC enrollment. A major 

advantage of the PNSS data is the detailed information on smoking before, during, and after 

pregnancy combined with administrative data on the timing of WIC enrollment. Studies that have 

linked birth certificates to administrative data have lacked such detailed information on smoking. 

Nevertheless, the screen for smoking in the PNSS is based on maternal self-reports. Thus, the 

authors presented evidence that the quality of the screen for smoking compares favorably to 

estimates from more controlled studies. Specifically, they showed that prenatal smoking is 

associated with a decrease in birth weight of between 100 and 240 grams, depending on the intensity 

of exposure to tobacco. These estimates conform to findings from clinical studies. 

Using multiple regression analysis, the authors found that among women who smoked at the 

time of WIC enrollment, those who enrolled in WIC in the first trimester were more likely to quit 

smoking three months before delivery or postpartum than women who enrolled in the third 

trimester. However, among whites, first-trimester enrollees who quit smoking prior to delivery were 

also more likely to relapse postpartum. Although the findings are statistically significant, the 

increases in the quit and relapse rates are modest (between 2 and 5 percentage points). 
23 

The authors acknowledged that they lacked a credible instrument with which to address such 

unobserved selection bias. However, they attempted to flag estimates that may have been 

compromised by self-selection. Specifically, they noted that 30 to 40 percent of women who smoke 

before pregnancy quit when they realize that they are pregnant. Such spontaneous quitting should 

be unrelated to WIC, since the quitting precedes exposure to WIC. As a falsification test, the 

authors evaluated the association between WIC and spontaneous quitting using the same 

methodology as employed in the analysis of quit rate three months prior to delivery or postpartum. 

The findings suggest a positive association between WIC and spontaneous quitting among nonHispanic black women. As the authors noted, this positive association suggests that their earlier 

findings between the timing of WIC enrollment and smoking cessation might have been spurious, at 

least for this group of women. 

Brodsky et al. (2009) also evaluated the association between timing of WIC enrollment and 

patterns of maternal smoking, using administrative WIC records from Rhode Island on prenatal 

WIC participants who smoked during pregnancy. They estimated the adjusted odds of decreasing 

smoking between the prepregnancy period and the final WIC visit, and the adjusted odds of 

increasing smoking between the same periods. The authors evaluated WIC’s impact among women 

who enrolled in WIC during the first trimester of pregnancy, using women enrolling in the second 

and third trimesters as a comparison. The findings for the odds of increased maternal smoking 

adjusted for timing of prenatal care, race, poverty status of city of residence, and primary language 

suggest that early WIC enrollment is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of increased 

maternal smoking. Their findings for the odds of decreased smoking are less straightforward. Their 

estimates suggest that among women who initiated prenatal care early, first-trimester WIC enrollees 

are more likely to decrease smoking than second- and third-trimester enrollees. Among women who 

initiated care late, the estimates suggest the opposite conclusion: a reduced likelihood of decreasing 

smoking among first-trimester WIC enrollees. Although this latter finding is not statistically 

significant, the magnitude is large (OR=0.46). The authors dismissed this finding as unreliable 

because of a small sample size. 

The authors’ estimates also suggest that early initiation of prenatal care significantly increases 

the odds that a woman increases the level of smoking during pregnancy. While the authors’ 

methods could not rule out that the results for both WIC participation and prenatal care are driven 

by selection bias, this counterintuitive finding further diminishes the support for a causal 

interpretation of the WIC estimates. It also raises the issue of multicollinearity between WIC 

participation and prenatal care, and its possible impact on the estimates. 

Bitler and Currie (2005) and Joyce et al. (2008) evaluated the association between WIC and 

weight gain during pregnancy. Both studies used a measure of average weight gain in pounds. As 

discussed previously, given that a significant proportion of WIC participants are obese, this measure 

may not appropriately capture the adequacy of weight gain for this population. Joyce and 

colleagues, however, provided separate estimates for women who were underweight prior to 

pregnancy. For this subgroup, a higher weight gain is likely beneficial. This review focused on the 

estimates adjusted for gestational age, as women with longer gestation are expected to gain more 

weight. The findings vary by the timing of enrollment in WIC and suggest that first-trimester 

enrollees gained about a half pound more and third-trimester enrollees about a half pound less than 

postpartum enrollees. 
24 

Table II.1. Studies Examining the Effect of Prenatal WIC Participation on Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Bitler and Currie 2005 

Data: Pregnancy Risk Assessment 

Monitoring System (PRAMS) 1992-1999 Sample: Medicaid births in 19 states (N=60,731)

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Pregnancy weight gaGestational age Birth weight Nights spent in hosp

delivery 

Nights spent in hosp

delivery 

Nights spent in hospRate of preterm delivRate of very preterm Rate of low birth weiRate of very low birth Weight for gestation Weight-for-gestation Infant in ICU 

Brodsky et al. 2009 Data: Rhode Island WIC records from 2001-

2005 Sample: Women enrolled in WIC during pregnancy who reported smoking during pregnancy (N=4,497)

Treatment group: Enrolled during the first 

trimester of pregnancy Comparison group: Enrolled during the second or third trimester of pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression

Increased smoking dDecreased smoking d

among women with 

Decreased smoking d

among women with 

Cox 2009 Data: Pregnancy Risk Assessment and 

Monitoring System (PRAMS) survey data from 8 states (1996-2003), merged with birth certificate data Sample: New mothers ≤200% of FPL who received prenatal care (N=45,227) 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during 

pregnancy, and received an adequate number of prenatal care visits and adequate health promotion advice Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy, and received an adequate number of prenatal care visits and adequate health promotion adviceMethod: Multivariate regression 

Very low birth weight Low birth weight (<2Preterm birth (<37 w

El-Bastawissi et al. 2007 

Data: Washington State WIC records 

matched with birth/fetal death certificates Sample: 1999-2001, births to mothers receiving Medicaid, AFDC, or First Steps services (N=39,608)

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during 

pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Rate of fetal death – 

<15 years of educa

Rate of preterm deliv

with a history of abwith no history of athan adequate pren

Rate of moderate pre

weeks) – among woabortion and womeabortion who had icare 

Rate of very preterm 

– among women wabortion and womeabortion who had icare 

Rate of low birth weiRate of moderate bir
Table II.1 (continued)

25 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods El-Bastawissi et al. 2007 (continued) 

Rate of very low birth Rate of preterm norm

among women with and women with no who had inadequat

Rate of full-term low Rate of preterm low 

Figlio et al. 2009 Data: Florida birth certificates merged with 

Florida WIC records and the public school records of older siblings Sample: 1997-2001 births to families enrolled in the National School Lunch Program (N=4,190) 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during 

pregnancy Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Instrumental variable estimation 

Birth weight (adjusteRate of low birth weiGestational age Rate of preterm deliv

Foster et al. 2010 Data: Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 

Child Development Supplement, 1997 and 2002 Sample: Children who lived with their biological mother (N=3,181)

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Propensity score matching; multivariate regression with maternal fixed effects 

Propensity score mod

Mother’s rating of 

Birth weight Rate of low birth wSmall for gestationRate of preterm deChild in NICU (neounit) 

Fixed-effects model: 

Mother’s rating of Birth weight Rate of low birth wSmall-for-gestationRate of preterm deChild in NICU 

Gueorguieva et al. 2009 

Data: Florida birth certificates linked to 

Medicaid files and WIC records Sample: Medicaid births to WIC participants, 1996-2004 (N=369,535)

Measure of WIC participation: A continuous measure defined as percentage of days on WIC during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression, stratified by propensity scores for WIC participation 

Small-for-gestational 

37- to 42-week bir34- to 36-week bir29- to 33-week bi23- to 28-week bir

Hoynes et al. 2009 Data: Administrative data on WIC 

implementation from directories and congressional filings; birth outcomes from vital statistics records; population data from CANCER-SEER; demographic and economic data from 1970 IPUMS; income and government transfer data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Information System Sample: Counties that had an established WIC agency by 1979 (N=2,059)

Treatment group: Counties with WIC program implemented Comparison group: Counties without WIC program implemented Method: Multivariate regression with county, state, and year fixed effects 

Average birth weight

Full sample Less than HS educHS education More than HS Highest poverty qLowest poverty qu

% births low birth we

Joyce et al. 2005 Data: New York City birth certificates 

Sample: Medicaid births to women with no previous births, who initiated prenatal care 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during 

pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during 

Women of all races – 

Birth weight Low birth weight 
Table II.1 (continued)

26 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Joyce et al. 2005 (continued) 

in the first four months of pregnancy; 1988-2001 (N=197,656)

pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Very low birth weiGestational age Rate of preterm deBirth weight (adjusSmall for gestationTerm low birth we

Women of all races – 

Birth weight Low birth weight Very low birth weiGestational age Rate of preterm deBirth weight (adjusSmall for gestationTerm low birth we

Joyce et al. 2008 Data: Pregnancy Nutritional Surveillance 

System (PNSS) from nine states (1995-2004) Sample: Women enrolled in WIC during pregnancy or postpartum (N=1,712,216) 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancy and did not recertify after deliveryComparison group: Enrolled postpartum and did not participate during pregnancy Methods: Dose-response effect of WIC using multivariate regression 

Differences in WIC imtrimester and 2nd-tritrimester — 2nd-trim

Birth weight Low birth weight Very low birth weigPreterm delivery Birth weight (adjustSmall for gestationTerm low birth weiQuit smoking postpPregnancy weight gunderweight wome

Differences in WIC imtrimester and 3nd-tritrimester — 3nd-trim

Birth weight Low birth weight Very low birth weigPreterm delivery Birth weight (adjustSmall for gestationTerm low birth weiPregnancy weight gunderweight wome

Kowaleski-Jones and Duncan 2002 

Data: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) Sample: Births between 1990 and 1996 with known WIC status during pregnancy (N=1,355) 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during 

pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression with maternal fixed effects 

Multivariate regressio

Birth weight 

With maternal fixed e

Birth weight 
27 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Lazariu-Bauer et al. 2004 

Data: New York State WIC records linked to birth certificates Sample: Women with singleton births in 1995 who were enrolled in WIC during pregnancy as determined by WIC check redemption (N=77.601)

Treatment group: Enrolled early during pregnancy and participated at least 6 or 7 months for preterm and full-term births, respectively Comparison group: Enrolled late during pregnancy and participated less than 4 or 3 months for full-term and preterm births, respectively Methods: Propensity score matching, stratified by length of gestation 

Birth weight – among Birth weight – among 

Reichman et al. 2003 

Data: Standardized data on pregnant 

women on Medicaid who enrolled in the New Jersey HealthStart program between 1988 and 1996 Sample: Women with a live singleton birth (N=90,117)

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression

Full Sample: 

Birth weight Rate of low birth w

Women at nutritional prenatal care before 

Birth weight Rate of low birth w

Rivera 2008 Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 

Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) (2001-2003) Sample: Children from 46 states and Washington, DC, who were born in 2001, and whose biological mother was the respondent (N=1,919)

Treatment group: Enrolled during pregnancy regardless of postnatal participation Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy, regardless of postnatal participation Methods: Propensity score matching

Highest quartile of p

Month started prenNumber of prenataBirth weight Rate of low birth wRate of very low birGestational age Rate of preterm deRate of very preterm weeks) Intrauterine growth Small for gestationLarge for gestation

Yunzal-Butler et al. 2010 

Data: Pregnancy Nutritional Surveillance 

System (PNSS) from eight states (1995-2004) Sample: Women with singleton birth who enrolled in WIC during pregnancy (N=1,768,970) 

Treatment group: Enrolled during the first and second trimester of pregnancy Comparison group: Enrolled during the third trimester of pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Smoking cessation 3 delivery: 

First-trimester enrSecond-trimester e

Smoking cessation p

First-trimester enrSecond-trimester e

Smoking relapse (quismoked postpartum)

First-trimester enrSecond-trimester e

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table II.1 (continued)

29 

III. IMPACTS ON INFANT FEEDING PRACTICES 

The literature search identified 13 studies that evaluated the association between WIC 

participation and infant feeding practices. Five evaluations focused on prenatal participation, and 8 

evaluated the impacts of postpartum, child, or any WIC participation. The most common outcome 

measures of infant feeding practices included initiation and duration of breastfeeding, exclusive 

breastfeeding, and introduction of infant formula. Less frequently, authors evaluated the timing of 

the introduction of cow’s milk or solid foods. Table III.1 presents a summary of the data sources, 

measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, and a summary of findings for all 13 

studies.

A. Selection Issues Specific to Evaluations of Infant Feeding Practices 

There are several ways in which the WIC program can influence infant feeding practices. 

Promoting breastfeeding is an explicit goal of the program, and prenatal WIC participants are 

encouraged to initiate breastfeeding through educational materials and counseling. The program 

continues to promote breastfeeding after birth, possibly affecting breastfeeding duration. On the 

other hand, the provision of free formula to non-breastfeeding mothers provides a strong incentive 

for formula use and may discourage breastfeeding. 

Given the high cost of infant formula, disadvantaged women who choose to formula feed have 

a strong incentive to enroll in WIC, relative to women who choose to breastfeed, and this can lead 

to a negative association between WIC participation and breastfeeding. The interpretation of this 

negative association will depend on whether WIC induces women to formula feed by making the 

option more affordable, or simply provides formula at a lower cost to women who would have 

formula fed even in the absence of WIC. A negative association between WIC and breastfeeding 

under the first alternative would suggest that WIC indeed reduces the incentives to breastfeed, while 

a negative association under the latter alternative would imply that the differences in the rates 

between WIC participants and nonparticipants are spurious and result from selection bias. In other 

words, even in the absence of access to free formula, women on WIC would have had lower 

breastfeeding rates compared to nonparticipants. This selection issue makes it very difficult to 

isolate the true effect of WIC participation on breastfeeding. 

B. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

Of the 13 reviewed studies, 3 evaluations attempted to address these issues by employing 

multivariate regression analysis controlling for observed demographic characteristics of the mother, 

family socioeconomic factors, and health-related risks and behaviors (Hendricks et al. 2006; Ryan 

and Zhou 2006; Ziol-Guest and Hernandez 2010). Eight studies limited their sample of 

nonparticipants to women or children who were income eligible for WIC in addition to controlling 

for certain covariates (Bitler and Currie 2005; Jacknowitz et al. 2007; Khoury et al. 2005; Racine et al. 

2009; Flower et al. 2008; Bunik et al. 2009; Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 2004; Wojcicki et al. 2010). 

Jiang et al. (2009) attempted to reduce selection bias by employing both a propensity score 

method and a mother fixed-effects model. Estimates based on the matched sample produced nearly 

identical breastfeeding rates for WIC participants and matched nonparticipants. The authors’ 

estimate from the fixed-effects model is not statistically significant; however, the coefficient suggests 

a higher breastfeeding rate among WIC participants. As noted earlier, reasons for changing 

participation are likely unobserved and therefore may be confounding the estimates even in the 
30 

fixed-effects model. Furthermore, analyses of discordant sibling pairs in the WIC literature generally 

suffer from small sample sizes. Because of the relative scarcity of families with discordant WIC 

participation among siblings, it is often difficult to locate a sufficiently large sample. In this study, 

the authors identified only 140 multichild mothers for analysis, which limits statistical power. 

Park et al. (2003) attempted to address bias by limiting the sample to prenatal WIC participants 

and evaluating the effect of first-trimester enrollment in WIC using second- and third-trimester 

enrollees as comparison groups. The advantage of this design is that all members in the study 

sample were eligible for WIC and made the decision to enroll in WIC at some point during 

pregnancy. However, unobserved traits that are related to both the timing of enrollment during 

pregnancy and breastfeeding practices remain as potential confounding factors. 

C. Other Methodological Considerations 

For evaluations of postpartum WIC participation, it is important to employ a measure of WIC 

participation that clearly identifies whether enrollment in WIC occurred prior to the observed health 

outcomes. In the case of infant feeding practices, measures of WIC participation should be limited 

to prenatal participation or participation during infancy. This condition is necessary (but alone not 

sufficient) to avoid finding a spurious association between WIC and infant feeding practices. Five of 

the 13 studies that evaluated various measures related to breastfeeding, formula feeding, or 

introduction of other foods focused on prenatal WIC participation. One study looked at the effect 

of combined prenatal and postpartum participation, and four evaluated WIC participation during 

infancy (prior to 12 months of age). Three studies employed measures of WIC participation that did 

not clearly identify whether enrollment in WIC occurred during infancy or later in childhood. 

Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004), for example, classified as WIC participants children with 

reported WIC participation since birth, as evaluated 12-15 months postpartum. Hendricks et al. 

(2006) used a measure based on any child-WIC participation as reported at the time of the survey 

when children were between the ages of 4 and 24 months. Ryan and Zhou (2006) defined WIC 

participation as any or current participation among a sample of infants up to age 12 months. Since 

the probability that a child is enrolled in WIC decreases with age, WIC participation at a later age is 

likely a good proxy for participation during infancy. Nevertheless, the ambiguity of these measures 

relative to initiation and duration of breastfeeding warrants caution in interpreting the studies’ 

findings. 

D. Summary of Key Findings 

Overall, research suggests lower rates of breastfeeding among WIC participants compared to 

nonparticipants, but from the available studies it cannot be determined whether this is due to WIC 

or to underlying differences between WIC participants and nonparticipants. Of the 13 studies 

reviewed in this section, one found a positive association between prenatal participation in the WIC 

program and initiation of breastfeeding (Park et al. 2003). Results from Park et al. (2003) suggest 

that WIC is associated with an increase in the likelihood of breastfeeding initiation among women 

who enrolled during the first trimester of pregnancy as compared to women who enrolled during the 

second trimester, but that no such association exists when first-trimester enrollees are compared to 

third-trimester enrollees. Eleven studies found either negative or no association with breastfeeding 

and participation in WIC (Jiang et al. 2009; Bunik et al. 2009; Wojcicky et al. 2010; Ziol-Guest and 

Hernandez 2010; Khoury et al. 2005; Bitler and Currie 2005; Jacknowitz et al. 2007; Racine et al. 

2009; Flower et al. 2008; Ryan and Zhou 2006; Hendricks et al. 2006). Evidence from one study 

suggests that women who enrolled in WIC postpartum were more likely than women who did not 
31 

enroll after birth to initiate breastfeeding (Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 2004). However, the study 

found no difference between the two groups in terms of breastfeeding duration. There is some 

evidence to suggest that providing infant formula through WIC delays the introduction of cow’s 

milk in infants’ diets (Jacknowitz et al. 2007; Ziol-Guest and Hernandez 2010). 

E. Research Results 

Five studies evaluated the effect of prenatal (as opposed to postpartum) WIC participation on 

infant feeding practices. Two of the studies estimated a dose-response effect of WIC participation 

(Park et al. 2003; Ziol-Guest and Hernandez 2010), and three evaluated the effect of WIC 

participation at any point during pregnancy (Bitler and Currie 2005; Jiang et al. 2010; Wojcicki et al. 

2010). Most recently, Ziol-Guest and Hernandez (2010) evaluated the association between first-, 

second-, and third-trimester enrollment in WIC and six measures of infant feeding practices, using 

women not enrolled in WIC at any time during pregnancy as the comparison. The authors used a 

nationwide sample of 4,450 mothers from the 2001 Early Child Longitudinal Survey (ECLS) Birth 

Cohort and limited their analysis to WIC-eligible births, as determined either based on household 

income or Medicaid participation during pregnancy. After adjusting for maternal sociodemographic 

characteristics, infant demographic characteristics and birth outcomes, and household composition, 

the authors found that compared to nonparticipants, first- and second-trimester enrollees were 

significantly less likely to initiate breastfeeding and to introduce cow’s milk in infants’ diet before age 

9 months. For all prenatal enrollees, the authors reported a significant increase in the likelihood of 

formula feeding. The findings further suggest lower rates of exclusive breastfeeding and higher rates 

of early introduction of solid foods among prenatal participants compared to nonparticipants. 

However, none of the findings for these two outcomes are statistically significant. 

Park et al. (2003) also evaluated the dose-response effect of prenatal WIC participation on 

initiation of breastfeeding, using a sample of teenage mothers enrolled in WIC during pregnancy 

from the Michigan PNSS. The authors used a multivariate regression analysis, controlling for 

maternal demographics and health behaviors. Their study is one of the few that found some positive 

association between WIC participation and breastfeeding; however, the findings are not consistent 

across the different comparison groups. Their estimates suggest that first-trimester enrollees were 

more likely than second-trimester enrollees to initiate breastfeeding, but also that initiation rates among 

first-trimester enrollees were not significantly different from those of third-trimester enrollees. 

Using data from PRAMS, Bitler and Currie (2005) analyzed more than 60,000 births to women 

on Medicaid between 1992 and 1999 in 19 states. The authors controlled for a detailed set of 

maternal demographic, education, employment, and health indicators (see the Impacts on Pregnancy and 

Birth Outcomes section for a more detailed discussion of the methods used in this study). Across the 

full sample, the study identified a relatively small, but significant, negative impact on breastfeeding. 

The authors reported that women who enrolled in WIC during pregnancy were 10 percent less likely 

to have engaged in any breastfeeding between two and six months after giving birth compared to 

women who did not enroll during pregnancy. Among a subgroup of women who received public 
32 

 

assistance from AFDC/TANF or the Food Stamp Program4

 in the previous year, the authors found 

a 16 percent increase in the likelihood of any breastfeeding. 

Jiang et al. (2010) used the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement 

to evaluate the effect of prenatal WIC participation on breastfeeding practices. The authors used 

two distinct methods to address selection bias. First, they used propensity score matching to identify 

a comparison group of WIC nonparticipants who shared the same likelihood of enrolling as the 

WIC participants in the sample. Second, they removed bias from unobserved, time-invariant 

maternal characteristics by employing mother fixed-effects on a sample of multichild households in 

which the mother had enrolled in WIC during the pregnancy of one sibling but not the other. The 

sample size for the fixed-effects model was relatively small, however, because only 140 multichild 

mothers met this criterion. The estimates based on the propensity-score-matched sample suggest 

almost identical breastfeeding initiation rates for prenatal WIC participants and nonparticipants. 

Using the mother fixed-effects model, the authors estimated a higher rate of breastfeeding initiation 

for prenatal WIC participants relative to nonparticipants, but the difference was not statistically 

significant (63.6 versus 50.9 percent). For both the propensity score and fixed-effects models, the 

duration of breastfeeding was estimated to be slightly shorter for WIC participants, but the 

differences were not statistically significant. 

Finally, Wojcicki et al. (2010) surveyed a convenience sample of 363 mothers, recruited from 

two hospitals in San Francisco, who were between one and four days postpartum. About 49 percent 

of the full sample were deemed eligible for WIC based on income, and 43 percent had a college 

degree or some postgraduate education. These figures suggest that the nonparticipant comparison 

group in the full sample was likely more advantaged than WIC participants. After adjusting for 

demographic and some socioeconomic characteristics, the authors found no significant relationship 

between WIC participation and the likelihood of formula or mixed feeding. However, the adjusted 

odds ratio suggests a higher likelihood of formula or mixed feeding among WIC participants. 

Jacknowitz et al. (2007) evaluated the association between WIC participation during pregnancy 

or postpartum and adherence to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics 

regarding exclusive breastfeeding and the introduction of formula, cow’s milk, and solid foods in 

infants’ diets. The authors used a sample of infants between the ages of 8 and 17 months from the 

2001 ECLS Birth Cohort, and restricted their analysis to infants of WIC-eligible mothers (N=5,276) 

as determined by income or participation in the Food Stamp Program, welfare, or Medicaid 

programs. They defined WIC participation as participation during pregnancy or within six months 

postpartum, or receiving vouchers for food or infant formula during the 30 days prior to the survey. 

The authors reported that 83 percent of WIC participants were enrolled prenatally. This, however, 

leaves 17 percent of the WIC sample that was identified either based on participation within six 

months postpartum, or during the last 30 days before the survey. While the former definition is 

acceptable for evaluations of infant feeding practices, the latter raises issues about the timing of WIC 

enrollment relative to the observed outcomes, as the sample includes children up to age 17 months. 

The ambiguity of WIC enrollment relative to the timing of the outcome measures in less than 17 

percent of the sample should be considered when interpreting the findings. 

4 On October 1, 2008, the Food Stamp Program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In 

this report, the term Food Stamp Program will be used when discussing research conducted prior to the name change. 
33 

Estimates from multivariate analysis controlling for maternal sociodemographic characteristics, 

household composition, and region suggest that compared to nonparticipants, WIC participants 

were (1) less likely to breastfeed exclusively for at least six months, (2) more likely to use infant 

formula during the first six months after birth, (3) more likely to introduce solid foods before four 

months, and (4) less likely to introduce cow’s milk before eight months. The difference in the 

introduction of solid foods during the first six months between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants based on the multivariate model is not statistically significant. While the findings 

suggest that WIC is associated with lower rates of breastfeeding, the delay in the introduction of 

cow’s milk in infants’ diets associated with WIC suggests that the provision of infant formula may 

help delay the introduction of less healthful (and less expensive) alternatives to breastfeeding. 

Seven studies evaluated the effect of postpartum WIC participation on infant feeding practices 

(Khoury et al. 2005; Racine et al. 2009; Flower et al. 2008; Bunik et al. 2009; Ryan and Zhou 2006; 

Hendricks et al. 2006; Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 2004). Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) 

identified a sample of 2,136 unmarried, low-income mothers from the Fragile Families and Child 

Wellbeing study, all of whom were likely WIC-eligible. After controlling for a large set of maternal 

characteristics, the authors found that postpartum WIC participants were 7 percentage points more 

likely than nonparticipants to initiate breastfeeding. The authors did not identify a significant 

relationship between WIC participation and breastfeeding duration. 

Ryan and Zhou (2006) evaluated the association between postpartum WIC participation and 

initiation and duration of breastfeeding among a sample of 5,685 mothers from the 2003 Ross 

Laboratories Mothers Survey, an annual (since 1978) nationwide survey of infant feeding practices. 

After controlling for maternal education, maternal employment, region, and birth weight, the 

authors found that WIC participants were about half as likely as nonparticipants to initiate 

breastfeeding or to continue it for six months. However, because the authors did not limit their 

sample to the WIC-eligible population, their estimates of the association between WIC and initiation 

and duration of breastfeeding are likely biased downward (finding a larger-than-true negative 

association). 

Using data from the 2002 Feeding Infants and Toddlers on children aged 4-24 months, 

Hendricks et al. (2006) found a negative association between postpartum enrollment in WIC and 

breastfeeding at 6 months of age, and no significant impacts on breastfeeding initiation or 

breastfeeding at 12 months of age. The authors controlled for a wide range of maternal demographic 

and income-related characteristics; however, as was the case in Ryan and Zhou (2006), Hendricks 

and colleagues did not limit the analysis sample to WIC-eligible children. 

Khoury et al. (2005) surveyed a sample of 733 Medicaid beneficiaries in Mississippi when they 

were 1-4 months postpartum. WIC participants were defined as women who were enrolled in WIC 

at the time of the survey. Using multivariate regression analysis, the authors found that current WIC 

participants were about half as likely as nonparticipants to report breastfeeding at the time of 

hospital discharge. The multivariate model the authors used controlled for sociodemographic 

characteristics and for respondents’ attitudes about breastfeeding, their perceived support for 

breastfeeding from family and the health care system, and their perceptions about social barriers to 

breastfeeding. Because changes in knowledge about the importance of breastfeeding and changes in 

attitudes toward breastfeeding may be important mechanisms through which WIC influences 

breastfeeding rates, controlling for such attitudes may not be appropriate, as it likely biases the 

estimated effect of WIC downward (toward not finding a positive impact). 
34 

Using data on 1,287 births from low-income rural families collected through the Family Life 

Project, Flower et al. (2008) evaluated the association between WIC participation by the mother or 

any other member of the household at any time since the child’s birth and two measures related to 

breastfeeding practices: initiation and continuation at 6 months. While the sample consisted of lowincome families, the income range of the families in the sample is not clear. About two-thirds of the 

sample were children from households (1) that had income less than 200 percent of the FPL or 

participated in WIC, TANF or other means-tested programs; or (2) in which the head of the 

household had less than a high school education. The income, and therefore the WIC eligibility of 

the remaining 34 percent who were included in the nonparticipant comparison group, cannot be 

determined from the authors’ discussion. Based on a multivariate regression model controlling for 

maternal demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, health-related behaviors, 

employment status, and infant health indicators, the authors found a negative association between 

WIC participation and initiation of breastfeeding. Discontinuation of breastfeeding by age 6 months 

based on a Cox proportional-hazard model indicated a higher risk of discontinuation associated with 

WIC participation. However, since this estimate is based on the full sample and therefore includes 

children who were never breastfed, it is not clear to what degree the lower initiation rate among 

WIC participants is contributing to the finding of higher discontinuation rate at 6 months. 

Bunik et al. (2009) evaluated the association between WIC participation at the time infants were 

6 months old and the likelihood of any breastfeeding at 6 months, using a sample of low-income 

women who participated in the Nurse Family Partnership Program between 2000 and 2005. The 

authors limited their multivariate analysis to a subsample of women-infant pairs who ever reported 

breastfeeding and found that after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, maternal BMI, 

and child’s gestational age, WIC participation at 6 months is associated with a marginally significant 

(p<0.1) 20 percent decline in the odds of any breastfeeding at 6 months. 

Using a sample of 1,595 low-income (below 185 percent of FPL) mothers participating in the 

Healthy Steps for Young Children National Evaluation, Racine et al. (2009) evaluated the association 

between WIC participation and breastfeeding cessation. After controlling for maternal education, 

demographics, and Medicaid participation, the authors found that participating in WIC when an 

infant was between 2 and 4 months of age was associated with a 50 percent increase in the 

likelihood of stopping breastfeeding in the first 12 months postpartum. As was the case in Bunik et 

al. (2009), Racine and colleagues limited their sample to women who initiated breastfeeding. 
35 

Table III.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant Feeding Practices Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Bitler and Currie 2005 

Data: Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring 

System (PRAMS) 1992-1999 Sample: Medicaid births in 19 states (N=60,731)

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancyComparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding ini

Bunik et al. 2009 Data: Nurse Family Partnership Program 

Sample: Nationally representative group of high-risk, NFP mothers observed between 2000 and 2005 (N=3,570) 

Treatment group: High-risk mothers enrolled in WIC when infant was 6 months old or 12 months old Comparison group: High-risk mothers who did not enroll in WIC when infant was 6 months old or 12 months old Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding at 

Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 2004 

Data: Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study baseline survey Sample: 1999-2000 survey of unmarried, lowincome urban mothers in 20 cities nationwide (N=2,136) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at any time after birth Comparison group: Likely WIC-eligible mothers who did not enroll at any time after birth Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding iniBreastfeeding du

Flower et al. 2008 Data: Family Life Project longitudinal cohort 

study Sample: 2003-2004 births to low-income rural families in eastern North Carolina and central Pennsylvania (N=1,287) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at any time after birth Comparison group: Did not enroll after birth Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding iniContinuous brea

Hendricks et al. 2006 

Data: 2002 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study Sample: National random sample of mothers with toddlers aged 4-24 months (N=2,515) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at time of survey Comparison group: Not enrolled at time of survey Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding iniBreastfeeding at Breastfeeding at Use of iron-fortif

formula users) 

Introduction of c

months 

Introduction of s

months 

Jacknowitz et al. 2007 

Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort Sample: Nationally representative sample of 2001 births, restricted to WIC-eligible mothers (N=5,276) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at any time during pregnancy or after birth Comparison group: Eligible mothers who never enrolled Methods: Multivariate regression 

Exclusive breastfExclusive breastfIntroduction of in

months 

Introduction of c

months 

Introduction of s

months 

Introduction of s

months 

Jiang et al. 2010 Data: Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Child 

Development Supplement (1997) Sample: Nationally representative sample of children (N=3,276) 

Treatment group: Enrolled anytime during pregnancy Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy 

Ever breastfeedinMonths of breast
Table III.1 (continued)

36 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Jiang et al. 2010 (continued) 

Methods: Propensity score matching; multivariate regression with maternal fixed effects 

Khoury et al. 2005 Data: Survey of postpartum mothers in 

Mississippi Sample: Medicaid beneficiaries with spring 2000 births (N=733) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at the time of survey Comparison group: Not enrolled at the time of survey Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding at 

Park et al. 2003 Data: Michigan Pregnancy Nutrition 

Surveillance System Sample: 1995 births to mothers between the ages of 12 and 19 who enrolled in WIC during pregnancy (N=3,534) 

Treatment group: Enrolled in first trimester Comparison group: Enrolled in the second or third trimester Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding ini

second-trimest

Breastfeeding ini

third-trimester 

Racine et al. 2009 Data: Healthy Steps for Young Children 

National Evaluation (1996-1998) Sample: Low-income families from 24 nationwide sites followed from birth through age 33 months (N=1,595) 

Treatment group: Enrolled when infant was 2-4 months old Comparison group: Did not enroll when infant was 2-4 months old Methods: Multivariate regression

Continuous brea

months 

Ryan and Zhou 2006 

Data: Ross Laboratories Mothers Survey Sample: 1978-2003, annually administered nationwide sample of mothers (in 2003, N=5,685)

Treatment group: Enrollment anytime after birth Comparison group: Did not enroll after birth Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding iniContinuous brea

Wojcicki et al. 2010 

Data: Survey of postpartum mothers in San 

Francisco Sample: Convenience sample of mothers less than 5 days postpartum between 2003 and 2005 (N=324) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at any time during 

pregnancy Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Exclusively breaspostpartum perio
37 

Design and Methods 

Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal SurveyBirth Cohort

Study Data and Sample Ziol-Guest and Hernandez 2010 

Sample: Nationally representative sample of 2001 births (N=4,450)

Treatment group: Enrolled in WIC in first, 

second, or third pregnancy trimester Comparison group: Did not enroll at any time during pregnancy Methods: Multivariate regression 

Breastfeeding ini 1st-trimeste 2nd-trimest 3rd-trimestBreastfeeding for  1st-trimeste 2nd-trimest 3rd-trimestExclusive breastfmonths (all trimeFormula use befo 1st-trimeste 2nd-trimest 3rd-trimestIntroduce cow’s m 1st-trimeste 2nd-trimest 3rd-trimestIntroduce solid fo(all trimesters) 

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table III.1 (continued)

39 

IV. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD DIETARY INTAKE, FOOD SECURITY, 

AND RELATED OUTCOMES 

The literature search identified 16 studies that estimated the effects of WIC participation on the 

dietary intake of infants and children, household food security, summary measures of diet quality, 

knowledge about infant feeding practices, and food labeling behaviors. Table IV.1 presents a 

summary of the data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, and a 

summary of findings for all 16 studies. 

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

All the studies that examined the effect of WIC participation on dietary intakes, food security, 

and related outcomes used multivariate regressions to control for observed household 

characteristics. The strongest of these studies also included additional covariates that are likely to 

influence these outcomes. For example, Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) controlled for several 

indices of dietary and shopping behavior, which could have important effects on intakes of added 

sugars. Similarly, Siega-Riz et al. (2004) used controls for other factors that might influence 

children’s diets, including Food Stamp participation, supplement use, dietary restrictions, television 

watching, and child care attendance. 

Several studies limited their samples to households with WIC-eligible incomes, which resulted 

in comparison groups of nonparticipants that are more similar to WIC participants than a broader 

group of low-income nonparticipants would be. For those studies in which the comparison group 

included both eligible and ineligible nonparticipants, ineligibility resulted from inclusion either of 

individuals with higher income levels or of individuals not categorically eligible for WIC. In a 

further refinement to their sample design, Black et al. (2004) limited their comparison group to 

WIC-eligible mothers who reported that their nonparticipation in WIC was due to their lack of 

access to the program. The authors provided descriptive evidence that their comparison group 

shares similar characteristics with enrollees. 

Ishdorj et al. (2007) used an instrumental variable design, using state variation in WIC eligibility 

rules and reported household assets to predict WIC enrollment. The inclusion of household assets 

as a component of the authors’ instrument may have been problematic, however, because it is 

possible that wealth and savings have an exogenous relationship to dietary intake and related 

outcomes. If, for example, WIC participants with lower household savings have poorer diets than 

higher-savings households (for reasons other than the WIC program itself), this instrumental 

variable approach may have underestimated the WIC effects. 

In studies of dietary intake, sometimes no impacts can be considered a positive effect. In 

particular, given concerns about increasing obesity, a finding that WIC participation does not lead to 

increased energy intake can be interpreted as a positive outcome. 

B. Summary of Key Findings 

Overall, recent research suggests that WIC participation is associated with improved diets. One 

study found that WIC participation increases the iron density of preschoolers’ diets, reduces the 

intake of fat as a percentage of food energy, increases the intake of carbohydrates as a percentage of 

food energy, and increases the number of servings of fruits and vegetables (Siega-Riz et al. 2004); 

three studies found that WIC participants consume fewer added sugars than nonparticipants 
40 

(Bhargava and Amailchuk 2007; Kranz and Siega-Riz 2002; Siega-Riz et al. 2004); and one study 

found that zinc intake of children is positively related to WIC participation (Arsenault and Brown 

2003). Evidence is inconsistent on the association between WIC participation and energy intake. 

Two studies compared the energy intake of children on WIC to that of ineligible nonparticipants 

(Mendoza et al. 2006; Oliveira and Chandran 2005); one found that WIC participants consumed 

significantly more calories than ineligible nonparticipants, and the other found no significant 

relationship. Oliveira and Chandran (2005) also compared the energy intakes of WIC participants 

and income-eligible nonparticipants; they found no significant relationship. Two studies examined 

dietary variety, and both reported a positive relationship between WIC participation and the variety 

of foods consumed (Knol et al. 2004; Ver Ploeg 2009). 

Evidence is either mixed or lacking on the effects of WIC on other outcome measures related 

to dietary intakes. Two studies evaluated food security status; one found no relationship to WIC 

participation (Black et al. 2004), and the second found a positive relationship (Oberholzer and Tuttle 

2004). Two studies reported a negative association of WIC participation with nutrition-related 

knowledge and behaviors (Ollberding 2009; Wojcicki et al. 2009). However, both these studies 

failed to control adequately for other factors that influence these outcomes. Although fewer studies 

examined WIC impacts on intakes of other vitamins and minerals, two studies found no significant 

relationship of WIC participation and calcium intakes (Siega-Riz et al. 2004; Ishdorj et al. 2007), and 

one found a positive relationship between WIC participation and calcium available from household 

food supplies (Bhargava and Amialchuk 2006). One study evaluated the consumption of WICapproved foods and found that children on WIC have higher energy intake from approved foods 

relative to both income eligible and ineligible nonparticipants (Oliveira and Chandran 2005). 

C. Research Results 

Iron Intake 

One reviewed study evaluated the effect of WIC participation on the iron density of diets, 

defined as iron intake in milligrams per 1,000 kilocalories. Siega-Riz et al. (2004) used the data from 

the 1994-1996 and 1998 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) to evaluate the 

dietary intakes of children aged 2 to 5 who were eligible for WIC based on household income. 

Dietary intakes were assessed with two 24-hour recalls. The authors stratified their analysis by 

income level (less than 130 percent of FPL and 130 to 185 percent of FPL), and found a significant 

increase in iron density associated with WIC participation for both income groups, after controlling 

for a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics. 

Using data from the National Food Stamp Program Survey (NFSPS), which includes 

information on the nutrient content of foods used from household food supplies over a seven-day 

period, Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) found that iron intake measured in milligrams per week was 

higher in households participating in WIC compared to households that did not include WIC 

participants. Their analysis adjusted for differences in income, education, and race. 

Calcium Intake

Among reviewed studies, the strongest study design pertaining to calcium intake comes from 

Ishdorj et al. (2007), who controlled for selection bias with an instrumental variable design. Using 

the 1994-1996 CSFII dataset, they exploited variation in state eligibility laws and a measure of 

household savings to predict WIC enrollment. The authors found that WIC participants acquire less 
41 

calcium from milk than do nonparticipants. The study did not measure total calcium intake, so it is 

not clear whether WIC participants compensate by obtaining higher levels of calcium from other 

foods (such as cheese). 

Two reviewed studies assessed WIC’s effect on total calcium intake. Siega-Riz et al. (2004) 

controlled for demographic characteristics and participation in the Food Stamp Program. The 

authors found no statistically significant differences in calcium intakes between WIC participants 

and nonparticipants. On the other hand, Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) found that foods used by 

households that included WIC participants provided significantly higher levels of calcium than foods 

used by non-WIC households. 

Other Vitamins and Minerals 

A small number of studies examined the impact of WIC participation on children’s intakes of 

other vitamins and minerals. Analyzing the CSFII data set, Arsenault and Brown (2003) found that 

WIC participation had a positive impact on total zinc intakes for non-breastfeeding children. 

Although they find that very few children studied (less than 1 percent) had inadequate zinc intake, 

they estimated that non-breastfeeding WIC children consume more zinc overall, as well as more zinc 

from infant formula, beef, and poultry, than non-breastfeeding nonparticipants. There are important 

concerns about the study’s design, however: the authors did not restrict the sample to WIC-eligible 

children, and the only sociodemographic covariate included was a set of three income-level 

indicators that do not align with the WIC eligibility cutoff. As a result, they compared WIC 

participants to others who were not from the same income group and not WIC-eligible, and who 

therefore may have differed in unobservable ways. 

Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) examined the impact of WIC participation on the betacarotene, folic acid, potassium, and vitamin A, C, E, B6, and B12 content of foods used from 

household food supplies. After applying extensive controls for sociodemographic characteristics 

and nutritional behavior, they found no significant impact of WIC participation on any of these 

vitamins or minerals. 

Other Dietary Components 

Several other dietary components, including added sugars, fiber, cholesterol, sodium, and 

specific foods and beverages, have also been examined in the reviewed WIC literature. Three studies 

examined the impact of WIC participation on added sugar intake (Bhargava and Amailchuk 2007; 

Kranz and Siega-Riz 2002; Siega-Riz et al. 2004). All three used national survey samples and found 

that WIC participants received a significantly smaller percentage of their total energy intake from 

added sugars. Both Siega-Riz et al. (2004) and Kranz and Siega-Riz (2002) stratified their analysis by 

income level to better control for Food Stamp eligibility, finding larger impacts for higher-income 

WIC children than for those below 130 percent of FPL. Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) report a 

similar negative relationship between WIC participation and added sugar from household foods, 

both overall and as a percentage of total energy intake. 

Three reviewed studies examined fiber intake, using relatively strong multivariate approaches. 

Bhargava and Amailchuk (2007) did not find a significant relationship between WIC participation 

and fiber as a percentage of total energy from household foods. Siega-Riz et al. (2004) found a small, 

significant positive WIC impact on total fiber intake among lower-income participants, but no 

significant impact for the higher-income group. Similarly, using CSFII data, Kranz (2006) found that 
42 

lower-income (below 130 percent of FPL) WIC participants were more likely than their 

nonparticipant peers to meet their dietary reference intakes for fiber (although they found an 

insignificant relationship for higher-income WIC participants). 

Correlations between WIC participation and cholesterol and sodium intake were examined in 

one study (Ver Ploeg 2009) that analyzed an unrestricted sample of 1988-1994 NHANES data. 

After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and Food Stamp participation, the author 

reported that children in WIC households had significantly higher Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 

scores for cholesterol and lower scores for sodium. These correlations were not statistically 

significant for the subgroup of households with more than one WIC-enrolled child. 

Four reviewed studies also provide evidence regarding the impact of WIC participation on 

fruits and vegetable consumption. Siega-Riz et al. (2004) found that both higher- and lower-income 

WIC participants consumed more servings of fruits and vegetables than nonparticipants. Ver Ploeg 

(2009) also found that WIC participants consumed more fruit than nonparticipants, and the effect 

was stronger in families with more than one participant. She found no significant differences in 

vegetable consumption. 

In addition, one study examined fruit consumption using the Feeding Infants and Toddlers 

Survey data set. Hendricks et al. (2006), in a multivariate regression controlling for a small set of 

maternal characteristics, found that WIC participation was not significantly correlated with fruit 

consumption (defined as the likelihood of “no fruit consumption”). The study also reports no 

significant correlations between WIC participation and the likelihood that children consume any 

salty snacks, sweetened beverages, or desserts or candy. Less weight should be given to the findings 

regarding WIC impacts from this study, however, because the study was not restricted to the sample 

of WIC-eligible children. 

Other Measures of Diet Quality 

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans include a recommendation to consume a variety of 

nutrient-dense foods and beverages. As a result, one dietary outcome often examined is variety. 

Two studies examined WIC impacts on the variety of food intakes. Knol et al. (2004) found that 

both young (2-3 years) and older (4-8 years) children in households where any member participated 

in WIC were more likely to consume a variety of foods, as measured by the HEI. Ver Ploeg (2009) 

also found a positive impact of WIC on HEI food variety scores for children in families with more 

than one participant (although there was no significant difference in families with one WIC 

participant). In a separate analysis, she found that variety is significantly higher in households with 

older WIC participants compared to those with only an infant participant. This suggests that the 

impact on food variety may be due to WIC food sharing among household members, since infant 

foods cannot be shared among older children. 

In a small study of low-income households in rural Pennsylvania, Daponte et al. (2004) 

examined the impact of WIC benefits on whether households attain the resources to acquire the 

Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), a national standard for a low-cost diet that meets the nutritional needs of 

its household members. The authors found positive impacts of WIC on households’ ability to 

acquire the necessary resources for the TFP, after controlling for Food Stamp participation and a 

variety of other characteristics. However, this study estimates a model that is essentially tautological. 

The outcome variable, called total food acquisitions, is calculated as the sum of the value of Food 

Stamp benefits, the value of food received from a food pantry, the value of WIC vouchers, and any 
43 

out-of-pocket food expenditures. Since the value of WIC benefits is one component of the 

definition of total food acquisitions, it is not surprising that WIC participation has a positive effect 

on the outcome variable. 

Food Security 

Only two of the identified studies examined the relationship between WIC participation and 

food security. Black et al. (2004), analyzing survey data from six urban hospitals and clinics collected 

through the Children’s Sentinel Nutritional Assessment Program, found no significant relationship 

between WIC participation and food security after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics 

and participation in the Food Stamp Program. The study design compared WIC participants with 

low-income (WIC-eligible) infants whose mothers reported that they chose not to receive WIC 

benefits for their child because of a lack of access to the program (as opposed to those who did not 

participate because they did not perceive a need for WIC). Descriptive analyses of WIC participants, 

nonparticipants who lacked access, and nonparticipants who did not perceive a need for WIC 

showed that nonparticipants who lacked access were more comparable to WIC participants than 

nonparticipants who did not perceive a need for WIC in terms of mother’s age, race, marital status, 

participation in other programs, and infant’s birth weight. This group is probably also a better 

match in terms of unobserved characteristics, assuming that whatever limited access to WIC did not 

also have an independent effect on food security. 

Oberholzer and Tuttle (2004) administered the Food Security Module by telephone to a 

random sample of Food Stamp participants in Maryland. They found no significant relationship 

between WIC participation and food security. The study’s sample size was small, however (N=245), 

which may have made it difficult to detect an effect. Moreover, the comparison group of lowincome households not receiving WIC included some households that were ineligible for categorical 

reasons; that is, some nonparticipating households did not have a pregnant, breastfeeding, or 

postpartum woman, infant, or child up to age 5. 

Nutrition-Related Knowledge and Food Label Behaviors 

Two studies examined the relationship between WIC participation and nutrition-related 

knowledge and behavior (Ollberding 2009; Wojcicki et al. 2009). Both used a comparison group 

comprising of both income-eligible and -ineligible nonparticipants. Wojcicki and colleagues selected 

a convenience sample of 363 new mothers at two San Francisco hospitals and interviewed them 

about their knowledge of recommended infant feeding practices and whether they read nutrition 

labels. Higher nutrition knowledge, defined as answering four questions correctly about infant 

feeding practices, was negatively associated with WIC participation after controlling for income and 

education. WIC participants were also less likely than nonparticipants to report that they frequently 

read nutritional labels. It is difficult to interpret these findings as causal, however, given the large 

and significant differences between WIC participants and nonparticipants. Compared with WIC 

participants in the sample, the nonparticipant comparison group was significantly older and more 

likely to be white, to be married, to have higher educational attainment, and to be employed full- or 

part-time. 

Federally mandated food labels on packaged food items is one approach to help inform 

consumers about what they are buying and eating. Ollberding (2009) examined the frequency of 

food label use in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults based on the 2005-2006 NHANES 

data. Respondents reported whether they used food labels—the nutrition facts panel, the list of 
44 

ingredients, serving size information, or health claims—when deciding whether to buy a product. 

The author found that WIC participants were less likely than nonparticipants to use nutritional labels 

in making food-purchasing decisions, after controlling for participation in the Food Stamp Program, 

health status, and other health behaviors. Moreover, WIC participants were less likely than Food 

Stamp Program participants to use food labels when buying products. The comparison group of 

nonparticipants in this study, however, included both income-eligible and -ineligible nonparticipants, 

which limits the causal interpretation of the findings. 

Food Energy, Macronutrients, and Consumption of WIC-Approved Foods 

Reviewed studies provide only limited evidence regarding food energy and macronutrient 

outcomes. The recent studies identified in this area produce mixed findings regarding the 

relationship between WIC participation and intake of fats and carbohydrates, and no evidence of a 

program effect on protein intake or energy density. 

Siega-Riz et al. (2004) examined the impact of WIC on dietary intake of fat and carbohydrates, 

applying a multivariate model to the 1994-1996 and 1998 CSFII. The authors limited the study to 

households with WIC-eligible incomes and further stratified their impact findings by income 

eligibility for food stamps (food stamp participation was also controlled for as a covariate). This 

study found mixed program impacts on fat and carbohydrate intake as a percentage of food energy 

among 2- to 5-year-olds. While WIC participants in the lower-income group (less than 130 percent 

of FPL) consumed significantly less fat and more carbohydrates than nonparticipants, the opposite 

was true for the higher-income group (130 to 185 percent of FPL). The estimates in the higherincome group were only weakly significant (at the 10 percent level), and no significant differences 

were found in saturated fat intake in either income group. 

A second study, Ver Ploeg (2009), also found that WIC participation reduced fat and saturated 

fat intake, as measured by the HEI. The models used to estimate the WIC impact controlled for a 

range of sociodemographic characteristics, as well as Food Stamp Program participation. Analyzing 

the NHANES data set, Ver Ploeg found that children in families with more than one WIC 

participant consumed significantly less fat and saturated fat (as indicated by higher HEI scores on 

these components). The reported effect was not significant for children in families with only one 

WIC participant, however. 

Only one study identified in our search examines the impact of WIC on protein in foods used 

from household food supplies (Bhargava and Amailchuk 2007). Using the NFSPS, the authors 

found very small and insignificant differences in the availability of protein from the household food 

supplies—both in amount and as a percentage of total energy—between WIC participants and WICeligible nonparticipants receiving food stamps. In addition to limiting the study to Food Stamp 

participants, the authors controlled for a large number of sociodemographic and behavioral 

covariates, representing a reasonably strong multivariate design. 

One study analyzed dietary energy density, defined as energy intake in kilocalories divided by 

amount of food and beverages consumed in grams (Mendoza et al. 2006). The authors used the 

1994-1996 and 1998 CSFII, a national survey data set used in several other studies reviewed here, 

but it did not restrict the sample to WIC-eligible individuals. Although the multivariate analyses 

controlled for income, Food Stamp enrollment, and food insecurity, there may be other unobserved 

differences that were unaccounted for in this model because WIC-ineligible people were included. 
45 

The authors reported that WIC participation was not significantly correlated with dietary energy 

density. 

Supplemental food packages are a major component of the WIC program. In order to link 

WIC participation to any health benefits, it is important to show that WIC food packages are, in 

fact, consumed by the intended beneficiaries. Surprisingly, there is very little research that focuses 

on this question. The literature search identified only one study, by Oliveira and Chandran (2005), 

that examined the association between WIC participation and consumption of WIC-approved 

foods. The authors analyzed the consumption patterns of a sample of 5,519 children aged 1-4 from 

the CSFII 1994-1996, 1998. Using multivariate regression analysis, they compared consumption of 

WIC-approved milk, cereal, eggs, cheese, juice, peanut butter, and beans or peas by WIC participants 

and three groups of nonparticipants: (1) children from income-eligible households with at least one 

WIC participant, (2) children from income-eligible households with no WIC participants, and (3) 

children from ineligible households. Findings suggest that WIC participants consumed more WICapproved juice and less of other beverages relative to all three comparison groups. WIC participants 

also consumed more WIC-approved cereal than eligible nonparticipants in non-WIC households 

and ineligible nonparticipants. 

Oliveira and Chandran (2005) also evaluated whether participation in WIC led to greater overall 

energy intake and found no clear association. In general, children on WIC consumed more calories 

from WIC-approved foods and fewer from other foods relative to nonparticipants. Overall calorie 

intake was significantly higher among WIC participants relative to ineligible children, but not relative 

to the two groups of income-eligible nonparticipants. One concern with the study design is that the 

multivariate regression models control only for average differences between WIC participants and all 

three groups of nonparticipants combined, as all three comparison groups are included in the 

models for each outcome measure. Yet there seem to be relatively large differences in the observed 

characteristics among the three comparison groups. For example, about 38 percent of WIC 

participants were white non-Hispanic, compared to 50 percent of eligible nonparticipants in nonWIC households, 28 percent of eligible nonparticipants in WIC households, and close to 79 percent 

of ineligible children. The authors’ multivariate regression models, therefore, may not adequately 

adjust for observed differences between WIC participants and the separate groups of 

nonparticipants. 

An important caveat should be noted in interpreting the association between WIC participation 

and outcomes such as consumption of WIC-approved foods or total energy intake. The 

consumption of WIC foods is considered an important moderator through which the WIC program 

seeks to improve child health, with the assumption that it improves children’s diet. However, the 

fact that children on WIC consume more WIC-approved foods does not necessarily mean that 

children on WIC have a better quality diet than children not participating in the program, as the 

counterfactual may not be clearly defined. For example, showing that children on WIC eat more 

peanut butter relative to eligible nonparticipating children cannot be clearly interpreted as a positive 

outcome. The interpretation depends on what food products (if any) are replaced in children’s diet 

as a result of the increased consumption of peanut butter. If peanut butter replaces fruits and 

vegetables, such substitution is unlikely to be interpreted as a positive outcome. On the other hand, 

if it replaces less nutritious foods such as candy, the substitution would more clearly be seen as 

beneficial. 

A similar argument can be made for total energy intake. Comparing the total number of 

calories consumed by WIC participants and nonparticipants does not convey information about the 
46 

outcome that is really of interest—whether WIC participants are more likely than nonparticipants to 

consume the appropriate amount of calories for their age, gender, and activity level. Again, the 

interpretation of findings depends on the definition of the counterfactual. For example, if the 

eligible population of children was generally underweight, then an increase in caloric intake for WIC 

participants would be considered a positive outcome. On the other hand, if obesity is a problem in 

the population targeted by WIC, finding no association may be interpreted as a positive outcome, as 

it would suggest that WIC does not contribute to childhood obesity. However, it would not likely 

be interpreted as WIC’s contributing to a more appropriate calorie intake. 
47 

Table IV.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child Nutrition Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Arsenault and Brown 2003 

Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII),1994-1996 and 1998 Sample: Nationally representative sample of children <6 years old and not breastfeeding (N=7,474) 

Treatment group: Individuals participating in WIC program Comparison group: Individuals not participating in WIC program Method: Multivariate regression 

Zinc intake (from a

From infant foFrom beef From poultry 

Bhargava and Amialchuk 2007 

Data: National Food Stamp Program Survey (1996-1997) Sample: National sample of food stamp recipient households (N=937) 

Treatment group: Households participating in WIC Comparison group: Households not participating in WIC Method: Multivariate regression 

Consumption over 

Energy from aProtein use Calcium use Iron use B-Carotene/enVitamin A/eneVitamin C/eneFiber/energy Vitamin E use Potassium use Folic acid/eneVitamin B-6 usVitamin B-12/e

Black et al. 2004 Data: Third National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey (NHANES III) administered at urban medical centers in 5 states and Washington, DC (1998-2001) Sample: Caregivers of infants ≤12 months of age without private health insurance (N=5,923) 

Treatment group: Individuals who received WIC assistance for their child Comparison group: Individuals who did not receive WIC assistance for their child because of lack of access (individuals who did not receive WIC assistance for their child because of no perceived need were also compared – results not reported in table) Method: Multivariate regression 

Household food in

Daponte et al. 2004 

Data: Food Distribution Research project survey (1993) Sample: Households with incomes ≤185% of FPL living in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (N=405) 

Treatment group: Households participating in WIC Comparison group: Households eligible for WIC but not participating Method: Multivariate regression 

% difference betwe

acquisition and 

Probability of exce

Hendricks et al. 2006 

Data: 2002 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study Sample: National random sample of mothers with toddlers aged 4-24 months (N=2,515) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at time of survey Comparison group: Not enrolled at time of survey Methods: Multivariate regression 

Fruit consumption Salty Snacks Sweetened beveraDesserts or candy Child considered a 

Ishdorj et al. 2007 Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by 

Individuals (CSFII) (1994-1996) Sample: Nationally representative sample of WIC-eligible households (N=2,374)

Treatment group: Target and non-target individuals living in households participating in WIC Comparison group: Target and non-target individuals living in WIC-eligible households but not participating in WIC Method: Instrumental variable model 

Calcium intake thr
Table IV.1 (continued)

48 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Knol et al. 2004 Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by 

Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 and 1998 surveys Sample: Nationally representative sample of children aged 2-3 (N=1,242) and aged 4-8 (N=1,506) 

Treatment group: Children receiving in WIC benefits Comparison group: Children not receiving WIC benefits Methods: Multivariate regression 

Among children ag

Food variety in

Among children ag

Food variety in

Kranz 2006 Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by 

Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 Sample: Nationally representative sample of 2- to 5-year-old children in WIC-eligible households (N=5,437) 

Treatment group: Children in households participating in WIC Comparison group: Children in WIC-eligible households that are not participating in WIC Method: Multivariate regression 

Meeting Dietary Refiber: 

<130% of pove≤185% of pove

Kranz and SiegaRiz 2002 Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 and 1998 

Sample: Nationally representative sample of 2- to 5-year-olds (N=5,652) 

Treatment group: Individuals participating in WIC Comparison group: Individuals not participating in WIC with household income <130% of poverty (FS- and WIC-eligible); Individuals not participating in WIC with household income ≤185% of poverty (WICeligible) Method: Multivariate regression

Added sugar intak

<130% of pove≤185% of pove

Mendoza et al. 2006 

Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 and 1998 Sample: Nationally representative sample of children ≤19 years old (N=11,284) 

Treatment group: Children in households participating in WIC Comparison group: Children in households not participating in WIC Method: Multivariate regression 

Dietary energy den

Oberholser and Tuttle 2004 

Data: Telephone survey using a modified version of the U.S. Food Security Survey Module (2001) Sample: Random sample of Maryland food stamp recipients (N=245) 

Treatment group: Food stamp recipients participating in WIC Comparison group: Food stamp recipients not participating in WICMethod: Multivariate regression 

Food insecurity 

Oliveira and Chandran 2005 

Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 and 1998 Sample: Nationally representative sample of children aged 1-4 years (N=5,519)

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC at time of survey Comparison group: Eligible nonparticipating children in households with no WIC participants; eligible nonparticipating children in households with a WIC participant; noneligible childrenMethod: Multivariate regression

Compared to eligiin non-WIC househ

Consumption oother foods: 

WIC-approved Other cereal WIC-approved Other beveraWIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved 

Energy intake: 

WIC-approved Non-WIC foodTotal 
Table IV.1 (continued)

49 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Oliveira and Chandran 2005 (continued) 

Compared to eligiin WIC households

Consumption oother foods: 

WIC-approved Other cereal WIC-approved Other beveraWIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved 

Energy intake: 

WIC-approved Non-WIC foodTotal 

Compared to non-nonparticipants: 

Consumption oother foods: 

WIC-approved Other cereal WIC-approved Other beveraWIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved WIC-approved 

Energy intake: 

WIC-approved Non-WIC foodTotal 

Ollberding 2009 Data: National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey (NHANES) (2005-2006)Sample: Adults who completed Diet Behavior and Nutrition survey questions (N=5,502) 

Treatment group: Individuals participating in WIC Comparison group: Individuals not participating in WIC Method: Multivariate regression 

Serving size food Health claims food 
Table IV.1 (continued)

50 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Siega-Riz et al. 2004 

Data: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996 and 1998 Sample: Nationally representative sample of children aged 2-5 in households below 130% of FPL (N=2,461) 

Treatment group: Children receiving in WIC benefits Comparison group: Children not receiving WIC benefits Methods: Multivariate regression 

Children in housepoverty, from all m

Energy % Energy from f% Energy from s% Energy from c% Energy from aIron Calcium Fiber Servings of fruiServings of frui

Children in houseof poverty, from a

Energy % Energy from f% Energy from s% Energy from c% Energy from aIron Calcium Fiber Servings of fruiServings of frui
51 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Ver Ploeg 2009 Data: National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey (1988-1994) Sample: Nationally representative sample of 5- to 17-year-olds who are not categorically eligible to receive WIC (N=5,310)

Treatment group: Children in households with one or more WIC participant Comparison group: Children in a non-WIC participating household Method: Multivariate regression 

Children in househparticipant: 

Total HEI score Dairy score Meat score Grain score Fruit score Vegetables scoFat score Saturated fat scCholesterol scoSodium score Variety score 

Children in houseWIC participants: 

Total HEI score Dairy score Meat score Grain score Fruit score Vegetables scoFat score Saturated fat scCholesterol scoSodium score Variety score 

Wojcicki et al. 2009 

Data: Local survey conducted at two California hospitals (2003-2006) Sample: Convenience sample of women within 4 days of giving birth (N=307) 

Treatment group: Women participating in WIC during pregnancy Comparison group: Women not participating in WIC during pregnancy Method: Multivariate regression 

Know appropriate 

child low-fat pro

Know appropriate 

food to feed chi

Know when to sta

complementary 

Know when to sta

cow’s milk 

Answer all nutritio

correctly 

Read nutritional la

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table IV.1 (continued)

53 

 

V. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD GROWTH OUTCOMES 

The literature search identified seven studies that examined the relationship between WIC 

participation and infant and child growth. The most commonly evaluated outcomes in the seven 

studies were the likelihood of being overweight (BMI ≥95th percentile) and being at risk of 

overweight (BMI ≥85th percentile).5 However, one study examined the same outcomes calculated 

based on weight-for-length (WFL) measurements rather than BMI. Other outcomes evaluated were 

the likelihood of being underweight (WFL<2SD) and diagnoses of failure to thrive. Table V.1 

presents a summary of the data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, 

and a summary of findings for all seven studies.

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

Four of the reviewed studies used a multivariate regression approach (Black et al. 2004; MelgarQuinonez and Kaiser 2004; Rose et al. 2006; Ver Ploeg et al. 2008). Three studies utilizing this 

approach compared the outcomes of WIC participants to those of either a group defined as eligible 

or low-income nonparticipants (Black et al. 2004; Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser 2004; Ver Ploeg et 

al. 2008). The analysis by Black et al. (2004) was unique in that the authors limited the comparison 

group to women who reported wanting to participate in WIC but could not participate due to 

perceived access problems. Close to half the women reporting access problems in the authors’ 

sample stated that they were on a waiting list to receive WIC. This reason for not participating is 

arguably uncorrelated with unobserved factors related to child health outcomes such as mothers’ 

motivation to enroll, and therefore is likely a more appropriate comparison group for estimating 

WIC effects. However, other examples of reasons for not participating reported by mothers were 

missing an appointment, not having time to pick up vouchers, or living in a shelter. It is not clear 

whether defining the comparison group based on these specific reasons reduces the selection bias 

from the WIC estimates. 

Rivera (2008) used propensity score matching to address bias from observed factors. In this 

case, the matching procedure did not produce a well-balanced treatment and comparison group. To 

address this issue, the author limited the study findings to the quartile of participants and 

nonparticipants with the highest likelihood of enrolling in the WIC program. While this quartile of 

the sample shared similar characteristics, the analyzed sample may not accurately represent WIC 

enrollees as a whole. 

Lee et al. (2006) employed a multivariate regression analysis, an instrumental variable approach, 

a mother fixed-effects model, and a multilevel hazard model and compared the estimates across the 

different methods in an attempt to better understand the selection issues related to WIC 

participation. The instrument used by the authors is the distance from children’s residence to the 

nearest WIC office. However, because the predictive power of this variable is weak, the authors 

favored the findings from the fixed-effects model and focused on the comparison between estimates 

from a multivariate regression and mother fixed effects. The latter can remove bias from 

5 Based on the new terminology, overweight among children is defined as a BMI at or above the 85th percentile and 

lower than the 95th percentile, while obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same 

age and sex. The terminology used in the report reflects the definitions of overweight (BMI ≥95 percentile) and the risk 

of being overweight (BMI ≥85 percentile) applied by the study authors (unless noted otherwise in the text). 
54 

unobserved time variant characteristics of the mother by estimating the within-family difference 

between WIC participants and nonparticipants. It cannot, however remove unobserved factors that 

differ between the siblings. The authors suggested that the similarity between the two sets of 

estimates points to evidence of no bias present in the multivariate model. However, as discussed in 

more detail below, a direct comparison from the two models may not be appropriate, as they are not 

based on the same sample of children. 

Bitler and Currie (2004) attempted to reduce selection bias by using expansions in the income 

eligibility for Medicaid in a child’s state of residence as an instrumental variable to predict WIC 

participation. As mentioned previously, women and children participating in Medicaid are deemed 

income-eligible for WIC even if the income cutoff in their state is greater than 185 percent of FPL 

(the threshold for WIC eligibility). Therefore, it is likely that expansions in Medicaid eligibility 

would also increase participation in WIC, as more families become income-eligible through their 

enrollment in Medicaid. The OLS results provided by the authors indicate no significant 

relationship between WIC participation and children’s weight or height, while the estimates from the 

instrumental variable model suggest substantial reductions in weight, BMI, and overweight status 

associated with WIC. The authors interpret the findings as an indication of a negative selection into 

the WIC program, and argue that correcting for this selection bias using an instrumental variable 

reveals the protective effect of WIC against childhood obesity. Given the considerable differences 

in the estimates from the two models, and the large magnitude of the instrumental variable estimates 

relative to the sample means for each outcome, caution in drawing causal inferences is warranted. 

B. Other Methodological Considerations 

Contemporaneous WIC participation is likely not an appropriate measure for evaluating the 

potential benefits of WIC participation on infants’ and children’s growth outcomes, as these tend to 

be more long-term outcomes that develop over time. However, if current WIC participation is a 

good proxy for past participation, then it may be adequate for studying the relationship between 

WIC and children’s growth. Four of the seven studies reviewed in this section applied a measure of 

WIC participation that reflects current participation in the program (Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser 

2004; Black et al. 2004; Ver Ploeg et al. 2008); one study evaluated the association between past WIC 

participation—defined as participation anytime during childhood—and children’s weight status at 

age 5-6 years, when they are no longer eligible (Rose et al. 2006); one study looked at the effect of 

prenatal WIC participation on outcomes at age 2 years (Rivera 2008); and one categorized children 

as WIC participants only if enrollment in WIC preceded the observed outcome (diagnosis of failure 

to thrive) but did not consider the time between enrollment and diagnosis (Lee et al. 2006). 

C. Summary of Key Findings 

Overall, the evidence on the association between WIC participation and infant growth 

outcomes is mixed. Findings from the only study evaluating growth outcomes among infants 

suggest that compared to WIC participants, nonparticipants with access problem tend to be lighter 

and shorter (Black et al. 2004). Among the six studies that evaluated overweight status among 

children older than 12 months (up to age 6 in some cases), two suggest a significant reduction in the 

risk of overweight among WIC participants relative to nonparticipants (Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser 

2004; Bitler and Currie 2004); one suggests that WIC is associated with a greater likelihood of being 

overweight among white children but not among blacks or Hispanics (Rose et al. 2006); and three 

show either no significant relationship or no consistent evidence of either a positive or a negative 

relationship (Black et al. 2004, Ver Ploeg et al. 2008; Rivera 2008). A study evaluating the incidence 
55 

of failure to thrive by age 5 found a lower rate among both WIC participants and joint WIC and 

Food Stamp Program participants compared to children not enrolled in either program (Lee et al. 

2006). 

D. Research Results 

Analyzing survey data collected in six cities through the Children’s Sentinel Nutritional 

Assessment Program, Black et al. (2004) examined the association between WIC participation and 

infants’ height and weight. The authors limit their sample to WIC-eligible children aged 12 months 

or less, using the lack of private insurance as a proxy for income eligibility. Among the incomeeligible sample (N=5,923), 91 percent reported currently receiving WIC benefits, 6 percent reported 

not receiving benefits because of various access problems, and 3 percent reported not receiving 

benefits and indicated no perceived need for WIC services. 

Using multivariate regression analysis and adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic 

characteristics, city, birth outcomes, mothers’ breastfeeding practices, and receipt of TANF benefits 

or food stamps, the authors found that compared to current WIC participants, infants with reported 

access problems were shorter and lighter, while infants from families reporting no need for WIC 

services were taller and no different in terms of weight. There was no statistically significant 

difference in the likelihood of being overweight among the groups, although the adjusted odds ratios 

suggest a lower rate among both groups of nonparticipants relative to current participants. 

As discussed earlier, a novel aspect of the study is the use of a comparison group that reported 

nonparticipation in WIC due to perceived access problems. Women and their children who intended 

to enroll in WIC but were unable to gain access may be similar to those who enrolled in terms of 

unobserved characteristics, and therefore constituted a more appropriate comparison group. This 

assumption, however, holds only if the barriers to access are not related to the health outcomes 

being evaluated. As the authors note, women provided various reasons for not participating: 45 

percent reported being on a waiting list, and 24 percent reported missing an appointment, not 

having time to pick up vouchers, or needing to reapply for WIC. Being on a waiting list likely 

reflects the lack of sufficient funding at the particular local areas to meet the demand for WIC 

services, and is likely an exogenous determinant of WIC participation for women living in the same 

area. On the other hand, reasons such as missing appointments, not having time to pick up vouchers, 

or lacking transportation may reflect the mother’s motivation to enroll. Exploring the sensitivity of 

the estimates to the different comparisons based on reported barriers to access would have been 

instructive; however, the authors were limited by the relatively few nonparticipants in their sample. 

Bitler and Currie (2004) used data from the 1996 and 2001 panels of the Survey of Income and 

Program Participation (SIPP) and evaluated the association between WIC participation and 

children’s weight status at age 4 among families with income below 350 percent of FPL. The authors 

employed an instrumental variable approach using the Medicaid income cutoff at the time a child 

was an infant as an instrument to predict WIC participation at age 4. As noted earlier, since most 

children enroll in WIC during infancy rather than later in childhood, children who participate at age 

4 are likely to be enrolled since infancy. Therefore, Medicaid eligibility during infancy is likely 

correlated with WIC participation not only during infancy, but also at a later age. 

The authors show that the Medicaid income eligibility threshold when a child is an infant is 

indeed a statistically significant predictor of WIC participation at age 4. This result, however, is 

based on the full sample of children that meet the study’s inclusion criteria (N=7,310). The 
56 

estimates for WIC’s effectiveness, on the other hand, are based on a subsample of children with 

reported anthropometric measures, which is about half the sample. An indication of the predictive 

power of the instrument for this subsample would have been instructive. 

Findings from the OLS regression model reveal no statistically significant difference between 

WIC participants and nonparticipants in terms of weight, height, and BMI. However, the results 

from the instrumental variable model are considerably different from those from the OLS model, 

and suggest that WIC significantly reduces children’s average weight, BMI, and likelihood of being 

overweight. The estimates for height and the likelihood of being underweight from the instrumental 

variable model are positive and substantially larger than those based on the OLS model, but are not 

statistically significant. 

Bitler and Currie (2004) point out that their estimates are confounded by co-enrollment in 

Medicaid and WIC and therefore likely reflect the association between joint Medicaid and WIC 

participation and children’s weight status. Such confounding might bias their estimates of WIC 

participation upward (toward finding a protective effect). However, as the authors suggest, the 

findings are more likely to indicate the effect of WIC rather than of the Medicaid program, as WIC 

is focused specifically on improving the nutritional health of children. Another factor that needs to 

be considered when interpreting the findings is that the data from SIPP provide only self-reported 

measures of height and weight, which tend to be less accurate than direct measurement and tend to 

vary based on individual characteristics (Gorber et al. 2007). 

The confounding factor and the large impact estimates for children’s BMI and weight based on 

the instrumental variable model suggest caution in attributing the findings to WIC. Based on the 

average weight and BMI of the children in the authors’ sample (45 pounds and 18, respectively), a 

reduction in weight of close to 20 pounds and an 8-unit reduction in BMI associated with WIC is 

quite large. A discussion of how these estimates compare to the impacts of other programs that 

target childhood obesity would have been instructive. 

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Rose et al. (2006) evaluated the 

association between WIC participation by the child anytime during childhood and overweight status 

at age 5-6 years. The authors employed a multivariate regression adjusting for socioeconomic 

characteristics such as education, household income, and food insecurity; behavioral factors such as 

activity level and watching TV; and health risk factors such low or high birth weight. The findings 

suggest no significant association between WIC and overweight status among black and Latino 

children, but an increased rate of overweight status among white children. 

The sample utilized in Rose et al. (2006) is not limited to WIC-eligible children, and it is not 

clear from the authors’ discussion how the WIC participants and nonparticipants compare in terms 

of observed characteristics. Furthermore, one of the covariates included in the authors’ model is an 

indicator of food security. Since changes in food security status could be one of the mechanisms 

through which WIC affects the overweight status of children, a discussion of the sensitivity of their 

estimate to the inclusion of this variable would have been instructive. 

Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser (2004) analyzed the association between WIC participation and 

the likelihood of being overweight and the risk of overweight among a sample of 204 children from 

low-income Mexican-American families from three counties in California. Adjusted estimates from 

multivariate regression models suggest a lower rate of overweight and a lower risk of being 

overweight among WIC participants compared to nonparticipants. The sample used in the study 
57 

includes children aged 3-5 years, with a mean age of 4.4 years (SD of 0.8). Since the authors’ 

measure of WIC participation is defined as current participation in the program, it is not clear how 

the inclusion of 5-year-old children, who were not eligible to receive WIC, affects the estimates. As 

in Rose et al. (2006), Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser (2004) adjusted for factors that are likely to be 

influenced by WIC, such as food security and child feeding practices. A discussion of the sensitivity 

of the estimates to the inclusion of these mediating factors would have been useful. 

Ver Ploeg et al. (2008) examine the relationship between WIC participation and household 

income and (1) children’s BMI and (2) overweight status, using a sample of children aged 2-4 years 

from NHANES. The authors evaluate the differences in outcomes between WIC participants and 

three groups of nonparticipants: (1) those eligible for WIC based on income, (2) those from 

households with income between 185 and 300 percent of FPL, and (3) those from households with 

income over 300 percent of FPL. Like Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser (2004), Ver Ploeg et al. (2008) 

utilized a WIC measure that reflects current participation only. Findings from regression models 

adjusted for race and age suggest no significant differences in BMI or the risk of being overweight 

between WIC participants and eligible nonparticipants among either boys or girls. Comparisons 

between WIC participants and nonparticipants in the higher income categories are also largely 

insignificant (3 of the 16 estimates show a statistically significant impact, 1 positive and 2 negative). 

Two issues must be considered when interpreting the findings from Ver Ploeg et al. (2008). Of 

the three categories of nonparticipants defined by the authors, the most appropriate comparison 

group for estimating a WIC effect is children eligible for but not enrolled in WIC. For each 

outcome, the authors employed a model that included indicators for the three groups of 

nonparticipants, using WIC participants as the reference category. Given this model specification, it 

is unlikely that the model adequately adjusted for differences between WIC participants and eligible 

nonparticipants even for the limited covariates included in the model (age and race). Furthermore, 

since the authors focused on rates of overweight, they excluded from their sample all children who 

were underweight. If the proportion of children who were underweight differed between WIC 

participants and nonparticipants, this would bias the authors’ estimates for the association between 

WIC and the risk of being overweight. For example, if nonparticipants are more likely to be 

underweight than WIC participants, excluding underweight children from the analysis would bias the 

authors’ estimates downward. 

Using propensity score matching, Rivera (2008) evaluated the association between prenatal WIC 

participation and child weight status among a sample of 24-month-old children from the Early 

Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). The author constructed indicators of being 

underweight, overweight, and at risk of overweight, and of having low middle upper arm 

circumference (MUAC) using WHO-recommended guidelines based on sex-specific WFL measures. 

Among children with propensity scores in the highest two quartiles, the findings generally do not 

support a significant association between WIC and any of the weight outcomes. The only statistically 

significant finding (of the eight estimates) points to a higher risk of being overweight among WIC 

participants compared to nonparticipants among children with propensity scores in the highest 

quartile. While the estimates for the likelihood of being underweight suggest a lower risk among 

WIC participants, the findings are not statistically significant. The results for MUAC, while also not 

significant, point to a lower risk among WIC participants (as compared to nonparticipants) among 

children with propensity scores in the second-highest quartile, and a greater risk among WIC 

participants in the highest quartile. 
58 

Lee et al. (2006) used various methods to evaluate the association between child WIC and (1) 

Food Stamp participation, and (2) failure-to-thrive diagnosis by age 5. A unique feature of the study 

is the ability to employ a mother fixed-effects model based on a large sample of sibling pairs (15,882) 

using data from the Integrated Database on Children’s Services in Illinois. The authors limited their 

analysis to children who enrolled in Medicaid within a month after birth, and adjusted their estimates 

for demographic characteristics of the child and the mother, as well as for socioeconomic 

characteristics such as education and work experience and census tract-level covariates related to 

race, birth outcomes, and poverty. Estimates from the multivariate regression model indicate a 

significantly lower likelihood of having a failure-to-thrive diagnosis among WIC participants and 

among joint Food Stamp and WIC participants relative to children who participated in neither WIC 

nor the Food Stamp Program (nonparticipants). Results based on the fixed-effects model also 

suggest a negative relationship between the likelihood of a failure-to-thrive diagnosis and WIC or 

Food Stamp participation, although the estimate for WIC-only participation is substantially smaller 

in the fixed-effect model (about half the estimate from the multivariate regression model). 

The authors compared the outcomes between nonparticipants and three groups of program 

participants—WIC-only, Food Stamp only, and joint participants—in a single multivariate 

regression model. Simple descriptive statistics provided by the authors suggest that joint participants 

as well as WIC-only participants were different in observed characteristics from nonparticipants. 

Furthermore, the selection based on these observed factors was generally not in the same direction. 

For example, 43 percent of the mothers in the nonparticipant sample were married, as opposed to 

51 percent in the WIC-only sample and 27 percent in the joint-participant sample. In other words, 

WIC-only participants were less likely to be married, while joint participants were more likely to be 

married compared to nonparticipants. The authors make inferences based on the comparison of 

nonparticipants to each group of program participants. However, the multivariate regression model 

controls only for average differences between nonparticipants and all three groups of participants 

combined, and as a result may not adjust adequately for observed differences between the 

nonparticipant comparison group and the separate groups of program participants. 

A positive feature of Lee et al. (2006) is the implementation of various methods and the 

comparison of the estimates based on different model specifications. In particular, the authors 

compared the estimates from the OLS and fixed-effects models and concluded that they are 

generally close. While such comparison is instructive, to be able to attribute the differences in the 

estimates to the different statistical approaches, it is important that both models be based on the 

same sample of children. The OLS model implemented by the authors included a sample of close to 

300,000 children, while the fixed-effects model included only the subsample of about 16,000 

discordant siblings. It is therefore not clear whether the two samples are comparable. 
59 

Table V.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child Growth Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Bitler and Currie 2004 

Data: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) (1996 and 2001) Sample: Nationally representative sample of 4-year-old children with family income <350% of FPL (N=7,310) 

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC at age 4 Comparison group: Children in households at <350% of poverty but not participating in WIC at age 4 Method: Instrumental variable model 

Body Mass Index (Weight Height Underweight (BMI Overweight (BMI >

Black et al. 2004 Data: Third National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey (NHANES III) administered at urban medical centers in 5 states and Washington, DC (1998-2001) Sample: Caregivers of infants ≤12 months of age without private health insurance (N=5,923) 

Treatment group: Individuals who received WIC assistance for their child Comparison group: Individuals who did not receive WIC assistance for their child due to perceived access problems Method: Multivariate regression 

Weight-for-age z sLength-for-age z sOverweight (weighpercentile) 

Lee et al. 2006 Data: Administrative data from the Integrated 

Database on Children’s Services in Illinois (IDB), merged with U.S. Census and vital statistics data Sample: Illinois Medicaid births between 1990 and 2000 (N=36,277) 

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC before the occurrence of a relevant health event Comparison group: Children not participating in WIC or FSP Method: Multivariate regression; maternal fixed effects 

Multivariate regres

Failure to thrive 

Maternal fixed-effe

Failure to thrive 

Melgar-Quinonez and Kaiser 2004 

Data: Local survey with anthropometric measurements (1998) Sample: Convenience sample of MexicanAmerican parents in California with at least one child 3-5 years old, recruited through Head Start, Healthy Start, WIC, county day care centers, and migrant education programs (N=204) 

Treatment group: Families currently participating in WIC Comparison group: Families not currently participating in WIC (was not restricted to WICeligible families, but 80% of sample earned less than $1,500/month) Method: Multivariate regression 

At risk of overweigpercentile) Overweight (BMI ≥

Rivera 2008 Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 

Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), 2001-2003 Sample: Children from 46 states and Washington, DC, who were born in 2001 whose biological mother was the respondent (N=9,685) 

Treatment group: Enrolled during pregnancy 

regardless of postnatal participation Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy, regardless of postnatal participation Methods: Propensity score matching

Highest quartile o

Low weight for l(weight-for-lengtRisk of overweig(weight-for-lengtOverweight at 24 length ≥2SD) Low middle uppcircumference at 

Rose et al. 2006 Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 

(1996) Sample: Kindergarten cohort of the study (N>15,000) 

Treatment group: Children who had participated in WIC Comparison group: Children who had not participated in WIC Methods: Multivariate regression 

Overweight (BMI ≥

Among African AAmong Latinos Among Whites 
60 

Design and Methods 

Data: Three waves of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (1976-1980, 1988-1994, 1999-2002) 

Study Data and Sample Ver Ploeg et al. 2008 

Sample: Nationally representative sample of WIC-eligible children aged 2 to 4 (N=21,056) 

Treatment group: Children aged 2-4 participating in WIC Comparison group: Children aged 2-4 not participating in WIC but ≤185% of poverty Methods: Multivariate regression 

BMI At risk of overweigpercentile) Overweight (BMI ≥

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table V.1 (continued)
61 

VI. IMPACTS ON CHILD IMMUNIZATION 

The literature search identified three studies that evaluated the association between children’s 

WIC participation and their immunization status. Outcomes analyzed in the three studies include 

the up-to-date (UTD) immunization status among children aged 19 to 35 months as defined by the 

recommended childhood immunization schedule, and rates of hepatitis A vaccination by age 2 years. 

Table VI.1 presents a summary of the data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical 

methods used, and a summary of findings in all three studies. 

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

All studies reviewed in this section applied a multivariate regression analysis adjusting for 

differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics between children who enroll in WIC 

and the comparison group (Santoli et al. 2004; Luman et al. 2003; Weston and Enger 2010). Santoli 

et al. (2004) used the full sample of children who participated in both the National Immunization 

Survey (NIS) and the National Survey of Early Childhood Health (NSECH) (and who had available 

provider-verified data on vaccination), and included indicators of household poverty status and 

insurance status (private, public, or other) among their covariates. Given the composition of their 

sample, the nonparticipant comparison group likely included children from more advantaged 

families. Because of the large differences in immunization rates between low- and high-income 

households, it is not clear whether the authors’ adjustments adequately accounted for the underlying 

differences between the two groups. Furthermore, it is not apparent how the exclusion of children 

without provider-reported immunization records from the analysis affected their estimates. 

Luman et al. (2003) used reported household income and participation in WIC to identify 

children that are (1) current WIC participants, (2) eligible for WIC with past (but not current) 

participation, (3) eligible for WIC but never participated, or (4) ineligible for WIC. The authors 

estimated a model that included indicators for the different groups of children and adjusted for a 

similar (but less extensive) set of covariates as Santoli et al. (2004). The authors compared the 

outcomes of current WIC participants to the outcomes of each group of nonparticipants in a single 

multivariate regression model. Given that differences in the observed characteristics between WIC 

participants and each group of nonparticipants likely vary, the model employed in the study may not 

have adequately controlled for observed differences between WIC participants and either group of 

nonparticipants (including those eligible for WIC). 

The main comparison in Weston and Enger (2010) was between the vaccination rate of children 

who received neither Medicaid nor WIC services and the rates of three groups of children: (1) those 

enrolled in WIC only, (2) those on Medicaid only, and (3) those enrolled in both programs. The 

authors lacked information on income or education that could have been used to adjust for 

differences in the socioeconomic characteristics between the groups. Based on the authors’ 

categorization, the most appropriate comparison to identify a WIC effect is likely between WIC-only 

and Medicaid-only participants. However, it is not clear how children on WIC who are not enrolled 

in Medicaid compare to those on Medicaid in the authors’ sample. 

B. Other Methodological Considerations 

A limitation of the literature on the association between WIC and child immunization is the 

lack of focus on the timing of WIC enrollment relative to the timing of vaccinations. Two of the 

reviewed studies use the NIS for their analysis. The questions related to child WIC participation in 
62 

this survey vary over time. For certain years, the public use data files contain information about 

whether the child was enrolled in WIC continuously since birth, was ever enrolled, is currently on 

WIC, or ever had a spell of more than six months with no WIC benefits. In other years, the 

questions are limited to whether the child ever participated in WIC or is currently enrolled. Except 

for the case of continuous WIC participation since birth, the information provided in NIS is too 

crude to determine whether enrollment in WIC occurred prior to immunization, which is necessary 

(but not sufficient) in order to attribute the findings to participation in WIC. One of the two studies 

that used NIS categorized children as WIC participants if they ever participated during their lifetime, 

using children who never participated as the comparison group (Santoli et al. 2004). The other study 

distinguished among children who were current participants, participated in the past, or never 

participated (Luman et al. 2003). Weston and Enger (2010) analyzed rates of hepatitis A vaccination 

using data from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry; theirs is the only study that measured 

WIC participation before the child was vaccinated. The authors evaluated the rate of hepatitis A 

vaccination by age 2 and measured WIC participation at age 1, which is when children first become 

eligible to be vaccinated. 

C. Summary of Key Findings 

The evidence on WIC’s effectiveness in improving children’s immunization rates is limited and 

inconclusive. Santoli et al. (2004) found no significant association between children’s WIC 

participation and their UTD status for routine vaccinations. Luman et al. (2003) found that children 

with current WIC participation (as reported in the NIS) are more likely to be UTD on their routine 

vaccinations than children who (1) are eligible but never participated, (2) participated in the past but 

are not currently participating, or (3) are ineligible for WIC. As noted previously, both studies 

employed a measure of WIC participation that could not assert whether enrollment in WIC 

preceded vaccination. The findings in Weston and Enger (2010), the only study reviewed that used 

a more appropriate measure of WIC participation, did not provide a straightforward interpretation 

of the association between WIC participation and hepatitis A vaccination. Their estimates, adjusted 

for a limited number of demographic characteristics, suggest that compared to children who receive 

neither Medicaid nor WIC at age 1, those who receive both Medicaid and WIC have a higher 

vaccination rate, but those who receive WIC only do not differ in this outcome. Since the 

comparison group most likely included children from families with higher incomes who did not 

qualify for either WIC or Medicaid, the lack of difference in hepatitis A vaccination between this 

group and children who receive WIC only may be encouraging. 

D. Research Results 

Santoli et al. (2004) analyzed the relationship between insurance status and vaccination coverage 

among U.S. preschool children aged 19 to 35 months using a sample of 735 children whose parents 

participated in both the NIS and the NSECH. Along with insurance status, the authors evaluated 

the association between participation in the WIC program and child immunization, controlling for 

demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The measure of WIC participation was defined 

based on any participation by the child during his/her lifetime. The estimates based on univariate 

analysis indicate that children who participated in WIC at any point during their lifetime are 

significantly less likely to be UTD for routine vaccinations compared to children who never 

participated. This result is not surprising, as the children in the comparison group were not limited 

to WIC-eligible nonparticipants. Only 20 percent of the sample used in the study was covered 

through public health insurance (most through Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance 

Program), and more than half the sample was covered through private insurance. Thus, their 
63 

comparison group likely included children from more-advantaged families, who generally have 

higher immunization rates. After adjusting for observed differences, the association between WIC 

and immunization status remains negative, but is no longer significant. 

Luman et al. (2003) analyzed a sample of 21,212 children aged 19 to 35 months from the 2000 

NIS. Using multivariate regression analysis, the authors estimated the adjusted odds of being UTD 

on routine vaccinations for three groups of children: (1) those who were eligible for WIC (as 

determined by reported income) but never participated; (2) those who were eligible and participated 

in the past, but were not currently enrolled; and (3) those who were not eligible; they used children 

who were current WIC participants at the time of the interview as the comparison group. Estimates 

adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics suggest that all three groups had 

significantly lower odds of being UTD relative to current WIC participants. The largest difference 

was between current participants and eligible children who never enrolled in WIC. These findings 

are in stark contrast to those of Santoli et al. (2004), who also used a sample from the NIS survey 

(albeit a subsample) and a similar but more extensive set of covariates, and indicate higher rates of 

immunization among nonparticipants than among WIC participants. As in Santoli et al. (2004), the 

measure of WIC participation used in Luman et al. (2003) could not establish whether enrollment in 

WIC preceded the vaccinations. 

Weston and Enger (2010) used multivariate regression analysis to assess factors associated with 

hepatitis A vaccination among a sample of 134,226 1-year-olds, using data from the Michigan Care 

Improvement Registry. The primary outcome variable was receipt of at least one dose of hepatitis A 

vaccination by the time the child turned 2. As noted earlier, the advantage of this study is that WIC 

participation is measured prior to the child’s being vaccinated. The authors compared the rate of 

hepatitis A vaccination between children who received neither WIC nor Medicaid at age 1 and three 

groups defined as Medicaid-only, WIC-only, and dual participants. While the data came from a 

population-based registry with a high estimated provider participation, they contained limited 

information on important demographic and socioeconomic variables that could be used in 

multivariate analysis. The adjusted odds of hepatitis A vaccination reported by the authors suggest 

that, relative to children who received neither Medicaid nor WIC benefits, those enrolled in 

Medicaid only or in both Medicaid and WIC were more likely to be vaccinated. Furthermore, the 

magnitude of the estimates is greater among dual participants than among Medicaid-only 

participants. The authors found no association between participation in WIC only and hepatitis A 

vaccination. The association between Medicaid and WIC participation (either dual or separate) was 

generally stronger among racial/ethnic minorities compared to whites. The interpretation of the 

authors’ findings is not straightforward. Since children who participate in neither Medicaid nor WIC 

(about half the sample) are likely to be from households with higher incomes, the higher rates of 

vaccination among Medicaid participants and dual participants are surprising. Furthermore, given 

the lack of association between WIC-only participation and vaccination rates, it is not clear whether 

the positive association among the dual participants is due to the joint WIC-Medicaid effect or 

simply to Medicaid. 
64 

Table VI.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Immunization 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Luman et al. 2003 Data: National Immunization Survey (2000-

2001) Sample: Nationally representative sample of children 19-35 months old (N=21,212)

Treatment group: Children whose mothers are participating in WIC Comparison group: Children whose mothers are WIC-eligible and never participated in WIC; children whose mothers are WIC-eligible and participated in WIC in the past; children whose mothers are not WIC-eligible Method: Multivariate regression 

Completion of rechildhood vaccinvaricella vaccine) 

Santoli et al. 2004 Data: Linked telephone survey samples from 

the 2000 National Immunization Survey and the National Survey of Early Childhood Health Sample: National sample of children, aged 19-35 months, surveyed in 2000 (N=735) 

Treatment group: Children who ever enrolled in WIC Comparison group: Nonparticipants Methods: Multivariate regression

Up-to-date immu

Weston and Enger 2010 

Data: Michigan Care Improvement Registry Sample: All children born in Michigan between May 2006 and April 2007 (N=134,226)

Treatment group: Enrolled when infant was 

12 months old (with and without Medicaid) Comparison group: Did not enroll when infant was 12 months old Methods: Multivariate regression

Hepatitis A vaccichildren) 

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 
65 

 

VII. IMPACTS ON INFANT AND CHILD UTILIZATION OF 

HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND RELATED COSTS 

The literature search uncovered six studies that evaluated the association between WIC 

participation and utilization of health care among infants or children and associated Medicaid costs. 

Three studies evaluated the association between WIC and the use of preventive care, such as receipt 

of well-child visits or Early Periodic Screening and Diagnosis and Treatment Program (EPSDT) 

services. One study evaluated the likelihood of diagnosis of common childhood illnesses. Two 

focus on utilization of dental care, both preventive and restorative. Only two evaluated the 

Medicaid expenditures and possible cost savings related to child WIC participation. Table VII.1 

presents a summary of the data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, 

and a summary of findings in all six studies. 

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

Two of the studies in this section attempted to reduce selection bias by limiting the sample to 

income-eligible children, as determined by their participation in Medicaid, and by applying a 

multivariate regression analysis to control for observed characteristics. Buescher et al. (2003) applied 

covariates based on information available from birth certificates, such as mothers’ demographic 

characteristics and education, as well other risk factors, such as low birth weight and smoking during 

pregnancy. Lee et al. (2004b) used mothers’ demographic characteristics, as well as income and the 

availability of dental services in the county, and also controlled for characteristics of the child 

(including age and low birth weight) and mother (including race, education, living arrangements, and 

household income). Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) also applied a multivariate regression and 

used a more extensive list of covariates. However, their approximation of WIC eligibility was to limit 

the sample to mothers who were unmarried and living at or below 250 percent of FPL, rather than 

those enrolled in Medicaid. 

Three studies attempted to control for selection bias by employing an instrumental variable 

approach or a mother fixed-effects model. Lee et al. (2004a) used the total number of WIC offices, 

the number of WIC staff, and the hours of operation of the WIC offices on the county level as 

instruments to predict WIC participation. Lee et al. (2005) applied a very similar set of instruments: 

the number of full-time WIC clinics, multiple sites, and hours open per month in a county. 

Questions about the validity of these instruments suggest caution in interpreting the study findings. 

For example, a distribution of the clinics across counties is likely a function of the demand for WIC 

services and may be associated with unobserved characteristics that are also related to the outcome 

measures. Since the available test for assessing the validity of instruments is weak, a conceptual 

justification for their use is important (Angrist et al. 1996). 

Lee et al. (2006)6

 employed three methods in an attempt to better understand issues related to 

selection into the WIC program. They first used a multivariate regression analysis and compared the 

estimates to those from instrumental variables and mother fixed-effects models. Their instrument 

for WIC participation was the distance from the child’s residence to the nearest WIC office. As in 

Lee et al. (2004a and 2005), the authors did not provide a compelling reason for why they 

considered the location of the WIC offices exogenous. However, since the distance to the nearest 

6 The authors in Lee et al. 2004a, 2004b, and 2005 are different from the authors in Lee et al. 2006. 
66 

office was not a strong predictor of WIC participation in their sample, the authors discounted the 

findings from this analysis and emphasized the results from the fixed-effects model. This is the only 

study that used a fixed-effects model to evaluate the association between WIC and health care 

utilization. As noted previously, this method eliminates bias from unobserved time-variant 

characteristics; bias from time-variant unobserved factors that might influence both the mother’s 

motivation for a certain level of health care utilization and enrollment in WIC may still be present. 

B. Other Methodological Considerations 

A complicating factor for evaluations of health care utilization and Medicaid expenditures is 

that if WIC participants are more likely to use health care services, they will also have higher medical 

expenditures, at least in the short run. These expenditures might not be limited to costs of 

preventive care services, but could also be for curative services, as children with higher health care 

utilization are more likely to be diagnosed with childhood illnesses (Buescher et al. 2003). For these 

reasons, an association between WIC participation and Medicaid expenditures may simply reflect the 

underutilization of care among nonparticipants and might even suggest that non-WIC children are 

more likely to go undiagnosed and untreated for their illnesses (Buescher et al. 2003). However, 

increased Medicaid expenditures in the first four years of life among WIC participants may still lead 

to cost savings in the long run, if the underutilization of care in early childhood by non-WIC 

participants leads to more health problems later. 

C. Summary of Key Findings 

Overall, the reviewed studies suggest that children who participate in WIC or whose mothers 

are on WIC have a greater utilization of both preventive and curative health care services than 

nonparticipants. Findings from Buescher et al. (2003), the most widely cited study in this literature, 

suggest that children on Medicaid who are also on WIC are more likely to receive EPSDT services 

and well-child visits, to be hospitalized, to use the emergency room, and to be diagnosed with 

common childhood illnesses. As a result, Medicaid costs associated with health care utilization are 

also higher among WIC participants. Further, their findings suggest that children with the longest 

enrollment in WIC have the highest levels of utilization as well as Medicaid expenditures. As 

Buescher et al. (2003) suggested, this could indicate that one of the benefits of WIC participation is 

that children are better connected to the health care system and thus more likely to be diagnosed 

and treated for childhood illnesses. However, an alternative explanation—that children who are 

more connected to the health care system in general are also more likely to enroll in WIC—cannot 

be ruled out. 

Findings by Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004), who analyzed mothers’ participation in WIC, 

confirmed the positive association between WIC enrollment and receipt of well-child visits found by 

Buescher et al. (2003). The findings from Lee et al. (2006) suggest an inverse relationship between 

WIC and utilization of EPSDT based on multivariate analysis, and no association based on the 

mother-fixed effects model. As the authors noted, the negative relationship from the multilevel 

models may be due to the fact that children on WIC receive EPSDT services prior to enrollment. 

To avoid spurious association due to inverse causality, the authors considered the occurrence of 

EPSDT visits prior to WIC enrollment as a non-WIC-associated event. 

Findings on the association between WIC participation and the use of dental care services are 

very similar to those on the utilization of primary care, and suggest that children on WIC are more 

likely to use both preventive and restorative care (Lee et al. 2004a). However, unlike the findings 
67 

from Buescher et al. (2003), those from Lee et al. (2004a) suggest that children on WIC are less likely 

to use emergency rooms and hospitals for dental care. This difference seems to have important 

implications for Medicaid expenditures for dental services. As Lee et al. (2004b) suggested, children 

on WIC are more likely to have any Medicaid expenditures related to dental care. Among younger 

children (aged 1-2) with any expenditures, the expenditures are lower among WIC participants. 

While the authors concluded that the combined effect leads to lower total Medicaid expenditures 

among children aged 1-2 on WIC, since the statistical significance of these findings is not reported, 

it is not clear whether the inferred relationship is due to chance. The conclusions of Lee et al. 

(2004b) are in stark contrast to the findings of Buescher et al. (2003), who reported that high levels 

of WIC participation are associated with higher dental-related Medicaid costs for children aged 1-4. 

While the finding of a higher rate of health care utilization among WIC participants relative to 

nonparticipants is fairly consistent across the six reviewed studies, it should nevertheless be 

interpreted with caution. Four of the six studies are based on administrative data from North 

Carolina; one study is based on data from Illinois. It is not clear whether a higher rate of health care 

utilization is characteristic of the WIC population in other states and nationwide. Furthermore, the 

analysis sample in studies based on data from North Carolina and Illinois is limited to Medicaid 

enrollees, who make up about 60 percent of WIC participants (Connor et al. 2010). Higher 

utilization of health care services may not apply to the 40 percent of the WIC population not 

enrolled in Medicaid. Findings from Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) provide some evidence of 

greater health care utilization associated with WIC among a sample not restricted to Medicaid 

enrollees. However, the findings are based on only one outcome, and the sample is limited to 

unmarried low-income women from 20 U.S. cities. 

D. Research Results 

Buescher et al. (2003) examined the use of health care services and associated Medicaid costs 

among a sample of children on Medicaid, using linked birth certificate, Medicaid, and WIC records 

from North Carolina. They used multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between 

levels of WIC participation and health care utilization, using nonparticipants as the comparison. The 

three levels of WIC participation were defined as high, medium, and low, based on the percentage of 

months from age 1 through the particular year of age in which food vouchers were redeemed. Along 

with variables on demographic characteristics and risk factors available from birth certificates, the 

authors controlled for whether the EPSDT visit was received in public health departments. By doing 

so, the authors reduced confounding due to the close proximity of many WIC clinics to other 

clinical services. They also controlled for prenatal WIC participation to isolate the effect of child 

WIC participation. 

Findings from Buescher et al. (2003) suggest that WIC participants at all ages (1-4) are more 

likely than nonparticipants to have received any well-child visit and to have had the recommended 

number of EPSDT visits. In addition, the magnitude of the estimates suggests a positive association 

between levels of WIC participation and both outcomes. It is thus not surprising that the authors 

also found that Medicaid expenditures for well-child care and EPSDT visits among WIC 

participants are higher, and that increased levels of WIC participation are associated with higher 

Medicaid expenditures. 

The higher utilization of health care services among WIC participants was not limited to 

preventive care; participants were also more likely than nonparticipants to have emergency room 

visits, to be hospitalized, and to be diagnosed with common childhood illnesses, though the 
68 

association between WIC and hospitalization was weak and applied only to certain age groups. The 

total annual Medicaid expenditure per child was also higher among WIC participants relative to 

nonparticipants, with the high-level WIC participants having the largest such expenditures. High 

WIC participation had annual Medicaid expenditures that were $163 higher for 1-year-olds, $197 

higher for 2-year-olds, $204 higher for 3-year-olds, and $345 higher for 4-year-olds compared to 

nonparticipants of the same ages. These are substantial differences, since the total annual Medicaid 

expenditure per child for ages 1-4 is about $825. 

Buescher et al. (2003) interpreted their findings as indicators of the child’s connection with the 

health care system. As the authors discussed, these findings can be explained three different ways, 

and no explanation can be confirmed given the data and study methodology: (1) children who use 

more services may also be more likely to enroll in WIC and thus also more likely to be diagnosed 

with illnesses (positive selection); (2) children who are more sickly and have higher health care needs 

are more likely to enroll in WIC (negative selection); and (3) WIC had a positive impact in that it 

increased children’s connection with the health care system and thus the likelihood that they would 

be diagnosed and receive treatment for their illnesses. 

Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) also analyzed the use of preventive care services, using data 

from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Using a multivariate regression analysis, the 

authors evaluated the association between WIC participation by the mother and the likelihood that 

the child received at least four well-child visits during the first year of life. Like Buescher et al. 

(2003), the authors found a positive association between WIC participation and the receipt of wellchild visits. However, while Buescher et al. (2003) limited their sample to children on Medicaid and 

therefore to WIC-eligible children, Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) approximated WIC eligibility 

by limiting the analysis to unmarried mothers at or below 250 percent of FPL. Given the available 

information on income and Medicaid participation in the survey, it would have been instructive to 

test whether the estimates are sensitive to the definition of WIC eligibility for their analysis sample 

(such as Medicaid participants only, or women living below 185 percent of FPL). 

Using data from linked North Carolina birth, Medicaid, and WIC files, Lee et al. (2004a) 

evaluated the association between child WIC participation and the use of dental care services among 

children enrolled in Medicaid. Using a two-stage instrumental variable approach, the authors found 

that children’s WIC participation is associated with an increase in the use of oral health services. 

Compared to nonparticipants, WIC participants are more likely to have a preventive and restorative 

dental visit and less likely to have an emergency room visit. Using the same data, outcomes, and 

methods and comparable instruments, Lee et al. (2005) came to similar conclusions regarding the 

association between WIC participation and the use of dental care services. As noted earlier, the 

number of WIC clinics per county, full-time WIC workers per county, and WIC hours of operation 

per county—examples of instruments used by the authors—are unlikely to be randomly distributed 

across counties. For example, WIC offices are likely to locate where there is a greater need or 

demand for WIC services. Therefore, counties with greater WIC availability may be different from 

counties with relatively few offices in ways that are not observed by the authors but are correlated 

with the outcome. 

Lee et al. (2004b) is one of the two studies that estimated the possible Medicaid cost savings 

related to child WIC participation. Using the same North Carolina data analyzed by Lee et al. (2004a 

and 2005), Lee et al. (2004b) estimated the association between WIC and the likelihood of having 

any dental-related Medicaid expenditures, as well as the amount of the expenditures among children 

aged 1-4 enrolled in Medicaid. The authors used a two-part model, where the first part estimated 
69 

the effect of WIC participation on the probability of having a Medicaid-reimbursed dental 

expenditure, and the second part estimated the effect of WIC participation on the amount spent 

among those with any expenditure. Both regressions controlled for mother’s race, age, marital status, 

income, and education, as well as the number of months the child was enrolled in Medicaid, the 

child’s age, and the number of dentists per 10,000 persons in the county of residence. 

The authors found that WIC participation increases the likelihood of any dental spending 

among infants and children aged 1-2 but reduces the average dental expenditures among those with 

positive expenditures for infants and 1-year-olds. Taking into account both effects, the authors 

concluded that WIC reduced total dental-related Medicaid spending among the younger age groups, 

and interpreted this as evidence that WIC’s promotion of better home oral care and more frequent 

dental visits reduces the prevalence and severity of dental disease. 

The authors focused on the savings among children aged 1-2. The results seem to indicate that 

WIC reduces Medicaid dental spending by less and less as the children age, and even increases it for 

children aged 3-4. If the difference between WIC and non-WIC children reflects better counseling, 

then one would expect the opposite pattern: an increase in WIC’s effect rather than a decrease. As 

noted earlier, the authors did not provide the standard errors for their estimates of the effect of WIC 

on total dental spending. Therefore, the reader cannot determine whether the differences are due 

simply to chance. 

Most recently, Lee et al. (2006) used data from the Integrated Database on Children’s Services 

in Illinois to evaluate the relationship between participation in the WIC, Food Stamp, or both 

programs and the timing and utilization of EPSDT services among a sample of children who 

enrolled in Medicaid within their first month of life. The authors employed an instrumental variable 

approach as well as mother fixed-effects in an attempt to control for selection bias. However, since 

the instrument used by the authors—the distance between a child’s residence and the nearest WIC 

office—was not a strong predictor of WIC participation, the authors emphasized their findings from 

the fixed-effects model. 

One of the main strengths of the study is its ability to apply the fixed-effects model to a large 

sample of children: the authors identified 15,882 discordant sibling groups. Previous WIC 

evaluations using this method were severely limited in their sample size. The findings based on this 

method suggest no association between enrollment in WIC-only and EPSDT services, and a strong 

negative association between joint enrollment in WIC and the Food Stamp Program and EPSDT. 

The pattern of the coefficients suggests that this negative association for the dual participation is 

driven by the Food Stamp Program rather than by WIC. 

Since there is no theoretical reason to believe that joint participation in WIC and the Food 

Stamp Program should cause a lower utilization of EPSDT services, the negative association 

provided by the fixed-effects model is more likely to be a reflection of the limitations of this method 

in reducing bias from time-variant unobservable factors or simply the result of the authors’ 

definition of WIC participation. Lee et al. (2006) are among the few who considered the timing of 

WIC enrollment in relation to the occurrence of the outcome. As the authors noted, this is a 

necessary step for inferring a “causal” relationship. However, as they also noted, the correction 

applied to eliminate the reverse causality may have biased their estimates of the effects of WIC on 

utilization of EPSDT downward, since WIC participants who received EPSDT services prior to 

enrollment were categorized as nonparticipants at the time of the event (the EPSDT visit). This 

classification could increase the rate of EPSDT among nonparticipants relative to WIC participants. 
70 

Table VII.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Infant and Child Health Care Utilization and AssociaStudy Data and Sample Design and Methods Buescher et al. 2003 

Data: North Carolina birth certificates merged with Medicaid participation and cost data Sample: 1992 births with Medicaid enrollment at any time before 60 months (N=49,795) 

Treatment group: Children with high (>66% of eligible months), medium (34%-66%), or low (<34%) levels of WIC participation during the first 60 months of life Comparison group: Nonparticipants during first 60 months of life Methods: Multivariate regression 

Well-child care visEarly and Periodic 

Diagnosis, and Tvisits 

Emergency room vHospitalizations Diagnosis and trea

Allergy Asthma Gastroenteritis Iron deficiency Otitis media Respiratory infe

Medicaid preventivMedicaid curative (Compared to nonchildren with high had annual Medicawere $163 higher $197 higher for 2-higher for 3-year-ohigher for 4-year-o

Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 2004 

Data: Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study baseline survey Sample: 1999-2000 survey of unmarried, lowincome urban mothers in 20 cities nationwide (N=2,136) 

Treatment group: Enrolled at any time after birth of child Comparison group: Likely WIC-eligible mothers who did not enroll at any time after birth of child Methods: Multivariate regression 

Well-child care vis

Lee et al. 2004a Data: Linked North Carolina administrative 

data (composite birth records, Medicaid eligibility enrollment files, Medicaid dental enrollment files, WIC files); 4-year panel data set Sample: Children born in North Carolina in calendar year 1992 who were enrolled in Medicaid (N=49,795) 

Treatment group: Children who participated in WIC, as measured by number of months when any WIC voucher was redeemed during each year of life Comparison group: Children who did not participate in WIC Method: Instrumental variable model 

Preventive care visRestorative care viEmergency care vi
71 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Lee et al. 2004b Data: Linked North Carolina administrative 

data sets including composite birth records, Medicaid enrollment files, Medicaid dental claims, WIC files, and Area Resource file Sample: Children born in North Carolina in calendar year 1992 who were enrolled in the Medicaid program between birth and age 3 years (N=49,795) 

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC for each year of life (infant, age 1 year, age 2 years, and age 3 years. Children were considered WIC participants for any year if the household redeemed any WIC food vouchers for that particular year of life Comparison group: Children not participating in WIC Method: Multivariate regression 

Infant WIC 

Any dentally reAmount of dent

expenditures 

Age 1 WIC 

Any dentally reAmount of dent

expenditures 

Age 2 WIC 

Any dentally reAmount of dent

expenditures 

Age 3 WIC 

Any dentally reAmount of dent

expenditures 

Lee et al. 2005 Data: Linked North Carolina administrative 

data sets including composite birth records, Medicaid enrollment files, Medicaid dental claims, WIC files, and Area Resource file Sample: Children born in North Carolina in calendar year 1992 who were enrolled in the Medicaid program (N=49,795) 

Treatment group: Children who participated in WIC, as measured by number of months when any WIC voucher was redeemed during each year of life Comparison group: Children who did not participate in WICMethod: Instrumental variable model

Dental services us

Lee et al. 2006 Data: Administrative data from the Integrated 

Database on Children’s Services in Illinois (IDB), merged with U.S. Census and vital statistics data Sample: Illinois Medicaid births between 1990 and 2000 (N=36,277) 

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC before the occurrence of a relevant health event (e.g., diagnosis of anemia) Comparison group: Children not participating in WIC or Food Stamps Method: Multivariate regression; maternal fixed effects 

Multivariate regres

EPSDT visits 

Maternal fixed-effe

EPSDT visits 

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table VII.1 (continued)

73 

VIII. IMPACTS ON CHILD HEALTH AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE 

DEVELOPMENT 

The literature search uncovered eight studies that analyzed the association between WIC 

participation and various measures of child health and development. Two evaluated the prevalence 

of childhood morbidity as measured by diagnosis of illnesses such as asthma, a respiratory illness, a 

severe gastrointestinal illness, ear infection, or other common childhood illnesses. Four evaluated a 

general health rating of the child, based on either the caregiver’s report or a physician’s assessment. 

One study evaluated children’s cognitive, motor, and socioemotional abilities. Table VIII.1 presents 

a summary of the data sources, measures of WIC participation, statistical methods used, and a 

summary of findings in all seven studies. 

A. Approaches to Dealing with Selection Bias 

Three of the studies discussed in this section used multivariate analysis (Buescher et al. 2003; 

Black et al. 2004; Carlson and Senauer 2003). All studies limited their sample to WIC participants 

and eligible nonparticipants as determined either by participation in Medicaid, household income, or 

both. Carlson and Senauer (2003) further employed a Hausman test to evaluate the endogeneity of 

WIC participation. Since the results of the test indicated that the estimates from the multivariate 

and instrumental variable models were not statistically different, the authors concluded that WIC 

participation is exogenous and therefore used the multivariate regression model for their analysis. 

As Carlson and Senauer (2003) pointed out, the reliability of this test depends heavily on the 

quality of the instruments used to predict WIC participation. The instruments the authors used 

included employment, urbanization, whether the mother was younger than 18 when the child was 

born, language spoken in the household, U.S.-born status of the parents, time spent living at the 

current address, and phase of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 

survey. While the authors stated that these variables had a low t-statistic when predicting child health 

in their sample, this test is not sufficient to establish exogeneity. There is extensive literature 

indicating a correlation between most of these measures and health. As with all applications of 

instrumental variables, the authors need to make a case for the validity of the instruments. 

As noted in the Research Results section of Chapter IV (Impacts on Infant and Child Dietary 

Intake, Food Security and Related Outcomes), the analysis by Black et al. (2004) is unique in that the 

authors stratified WIC-eligible nonparticipants into two groups: (1) children of mothers with 

reported access problems, and (2) children of mothers with no perceived need for WIC benefits. 

About half the nonparticipant sample with reported access problems was on a waiting list to receive 

WIC, a reason for nonparticipation that is likely uncorrelated with child health outcomes. Other 

reported access problems, however, such as not having time to pick up vouchers and living in a 

shelter, are potentially negatively correlated with child health outcomes. 

Sparks (2010) and Rivera (2008) used a propensity-score-matching method to minimize 

differences between WIC participants and the comparison group. Rivera (2009) could not achieve a 

balance on covariates for the full matched sample and therefore limited the analysis to the children 

in the two highest quartiles based on their estimated probability to participate in WIC (the 

propensity score). However, differences in certain characteristics remained even for these two 

subgroups of children. WIC participants in the highest quartile were significantly less likely than 

matched nonparticipants to live in urban areas. WIC participants and matched nonparticipants in 

the second-highest quartile differed in terms of poverty, Medicaid receipt, and foreign-born status. 
74 

While Sparks (2010) was able to reduce differences in most covariates between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants, some differences remained in this study as well. 

Lee et al. (2006) compared three analytic approaches to estimating WIC impacts: multivariate 

regression, fixed-effects models, and an instrumental variable approach that used distance to WIC 

clinics as the predictor of WIC enrollment. Distance to a WIC clinic turned out to be only weakly 

associated with WIC enrollment, and as a result the instrumental variables results are given less 

emphasis than results from multivariate regression and fix-effects models. Comparing the 

multivariate regression results to maternal fixed-effects results, the authors found that both models 

produced similar findings. Lee et al. (2006) interpreted this as evidence that time-invariant 

unobserved factors are not major sources of bias for WIC studies. Other considerations—such as 

the complication from factors that change over time that likely contribute to both changes in WIC 

participation and child health outcomes—are not discussed. 

B. Other Methodological Considerations 

Outcomes such as a physician’s diagnosis of illnesses depend on a visit to a health care 

provider. Differences in the utilization of health care services between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants are likely a confounding factor for these outcomes if they are based on parents’ 

reports rather than physicians’ assessments of all children in a particular survey. As suggested by 

Buescher et al. (2003), children on WIC have a higher utilization of health care services relative to 

eligible nonparticipants, which likely leads to higher rates of diagnosis of illnesses among children 

enrolled in WIC. The association between WIC and health care utilization may not be causal; 

nevertheless, it has important consequences for the interpretation of the findings for parentreported diagnoses of childhood illnesses. 

C. Summary of Key Findings 

The literature on the association between WIC and child health outcomes provides no clear 

evidence of either a positive or a negative association. Carlson and Senauer (2003) found a positive 

relationship between WIC and physicians’ assessments of children’s health among a sample of WICeligible children, as well as based on a larger sample that included children from more advantaged 

families. Among infants 12 months or younger, Black et al. (2004) found that, compared to children 

in families who because of perceived access problems did not receive WIC benefits, children 

receiving WIC benefits were less likely to be in fair or poor health, as reported by the caregiver. 

Rivera (2008) found a marginally significant negative association between WIC and mother’s report 

of child’s health status at age 24 months for a subgroup of children (as defined by their estimated 

propensity to participate in WIC), but no significant impacts for health at 9 months. Findings from 

Sparks (2010) suggest no association between WIC and ratings of children’s general health or 

physician’s diagnosis of illnesses as reported by the mother. Buescher et al. (2003) found a higher 

incidence of diagnosis of common childhood illnesses among WIC participants compared to 

nonparticipants, which they attributed to the higher utilization of health care services among WIC 

participants. Estimates from Rivera (2008) suggest no consistent association between prenatal WIC 

participation and children’s cognitive, motor, and socioemotional abilities. The estimates vary 

somewhat based on the subgroups of children classified by the probability of WIC participation (as 

determined by the propensity score). Of the 14 estimates, 2 suggest a significant positive and 2 a 

significant negative association with WIC. 
75 

The evidence on the relationship between WIC participation and iron status is complicated. 

Two studies examined the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) or iron deficiency anemia (IDA) based 

on blood samples for the entire sample and found that WIC participation reduced the prevalence of 

ID and IDA (Schneider et al. 2008; Park et al. 2009). Two other studies examined the relationship 

between WIC participation and the likelihood of being diagnosed with anemia and other measures 

of nutritional deficiency. Of these two studies, one found that child WIC participation was 

associated with an increased prevalence of being diagnosed with anemia and all measures of 

nutritional deficiency (Buescher et al. 2003), while the other found the exact opposite (Lee et al. 

2006). It is difficult to determine whether the differences in these results are due to differences 

between the studies in (1) the study population (North Carolina versus Illinois Medicaid enrollees), 

(2) methods used to estimate the models, (3) definition of WIC participation, or (4) other factors. 

D. Research Results 

Sparks (2010) evaluated the association between WIC participation and diagnosis of childhood 

morbidities by age 9 months, using a nationally representative sample of children from the Early 

Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), Longitudinal Nine-Month-Preschool 

Restricted-Use Data File. The author limited the sample to WIC participants and eligible 

nonparticipants defined as children from families with incomes at or below 185 percent of FPL, or 

from families with a household member enrolled in Medicaid, TANF, or the Food Stamp Program. 

Using propensity score methods to minimize observable differences between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants, the authors compared the average treatment effect based on the matched sample to 

the estimates based on the unmatched sample. The findings suggest that WIC participants differ 

from eligible nonparticipants in terms of both demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and 

that WIC participants are generally negatively selected based on these observable factors. The 

estimates based on the unmatched sample suggest that WIC participants are significantly more likely 

to be diagnosed with all illnesses evaluated by the authors—asthma, respiratory illness, a severe 

gastrointestinal illness, and ear infection—and are more likely to be rated in poor health by their 

mother. On the other hand, the estimates based on the matched sample indicate smaller differences, 

and the differences are no longer significant for any of the outcomes. 

Measures of physicians’ diagnoses of illnesses employed by Sparks (2010) are based on mothers’ 

reports. As noted earlier, a diagnosis by a physician is naturally conditional on a visit to the 

physician. Since previous research suggests that health care utilization is higher among WIC 

participants than among eligible nonparticipants (Buescher et al. 2003; Lee et al. 2004a), a discussion 

about how differences in utilization might affect the study’s estimates would have been instructive. 

(See the “Impacts on Health Care Utilization and Related Costs” chapter for a more detailed 

discussion, based on findings from Buescher et al. 2003, about the relationship between WIC and (1) 

health care utilization, and (2) diagnosis of illnesses). 

Carlson and Senauer (2003) used data from NHANES III on children aged 24 to 60 months to 

analyze the association between WIC participation by anyone in the household and physicians’ 

overall evaluation of children’s health. Similar to Sparks (2010), Carlson and Senauer (2003) limited 

their sample to WIC participants and eligible nonparticipants, defined as children from households 

that either had income below the WIC threshold or included someone who qualified for Medicaid. 

The authors used an ordered probit to evaluate the association between WIC and a four-point scale 

rating of the child’s health (excellent, very good, good, fair/poor), controlling for individual, 

household, and geographic characteristics. The findings based on the WIC-eligible sample suggest 

that children from households that participated in WIC were more likely than nonparticipants to be 
76 

in excellent health. As noted earlier, the authors chose a multivariate regression model over an 

instrumental variable approach, citing results from a Hausman test indicating no difference between 

the estimates from the two models; and the validity of the instruments employed by the authors to 

perform the test are questionable. 

Rivera (2008) also used the ECLS-B and analyzed the association between prenatal WIC 

participation and infants’ cognitive, motor, socioemotional abilities, and health status at ages 9 and 

24 months, as reported by the parents. The author employed a propensity-score-adjusted 

multivariate regression model. Because the matching procedure improved equivalence only in the 

sample with propensity scores in the two highest quartiles, Rivera focused on the estimates based on 

this subsample. The simple multivariate analyses based on this subgroup suggest that WIC is 

associated with an improvement in motor skills at 9 months. The propensity-score-adjusted 

estimates based on the sample of children with the highest probability of WIC participation indicate 

(1) a significant positive association between WIC and motor skills at 9 months, and (2) a marginally 

significant positive association with socioemotional ability at 9 months, but (3) a marginally 

significant negative association with socioemotional ability at 24 months. The only significant 

finding based on the sample with the second-highest probability of WIC participation is a negative 

association between WIC and socioemotional ability at 24 months. Their findings for children’s 

health status at 9 and 24 months indicate no association. One of their four estimates related to this 

outcome is negative and marginally significant. The variation in the results provides no clear 

understanding of the association between WIC and children’s cognitive, motor, and socioemotional 

abilities, or their health status. 

Using data from the Children’s Sentinel Nutritional Assessment Program, Black et al. (2004) 

evaluated the association between WIC participation and caregivers’ rating of infants’ overall health 

status. As described earlier, the authors used lack of private health insurance as a proxy for WIC 

eligibility and constructed two comparison groups based on reported reasons for nonparticipation. 

Both the unadjusted and the regression-adjusted estimates suggest that infants on WIC are less likely 

to be in fair or poor health compared to infants in households that, as a result of reported access 

problems, are not currently receiving WIC benefits. On the other hand, children in households with 

no perceived need for WIC benefits have better health status than children on WIC; however, the 

differences for this comparison are not statistically significant. The reason for the nonsignificant 

findings may be lack of statistical power, as the magnitude of the estimates is smaller, and the sample 

size for the comparison group with no perceived need for WIC (188) is only about half the size of 

the sample that because of access problems is not on WIC (340). 

Iron Deficiency/Iron Deficiency Anemia and Other Nutritional Deficiencies 

Lee et al. (2006) used linked Medicaid and WIC data for a sample of children born between 

1990 and 2000 in Illinois who entered Medicaid within a month after birth. As noted previously, the 

study employed a multivariate regression analysis, a mother-fixed-effects model, and an instrumental 

variable approach to mitigate selection bias. However, since their instrument (proximity to a WIC 

clinic) is not a strong predictor of WIC participation, the authors focused on the estimates from the 

multivariate regression and mother-fixed-effects models. Both models produced similar results, 

which suggests that children enrolled in WIC are at significantly lower risk of being diagnosed with 

anemia and other nutrition-related health problems, such as malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. 

Schneider et al. (2008) and Park et al. (2009) also examined the association between WIC 

participation and ID. Schneider et al. (2008) used data from a convenience sample of 498 children 
77 

of women attending WIC clinics in two counties in California. Study participants were recruited 

from WIC waiting rooms between August 2000 and June 2002. The authors evaluated the 

association between several measures of WIC participation and IDA among children aged 1-3. They 

found a significant reduction in anemia among children who were current WIC participants 

(compared to children who were not currently enrolled but whose mothers were applying for WIC 

benefits) and among children whose mothers participated in WIC prenatally. It is very difficult to 

determine the appropriateness of the comparison group of nonparticipants used in this study. Since 

the nonparticipants had not previously been WIC participants as infants, it would have been useful 

to know several factors about the child nonparticipants, especially the sample sizes and whether they 

were more likely to be breastfed. 

As part of the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Project (C-SNAP), which included the 

administration of the Food Security Survey Module, Park et al. (2009) examined the relationship 

between (1) food security and ID/IDA, and (2) child WIC participation and ID/IDA. The authors 

found that children aged 0-3 who participated in WIC were significantly less likely than 

nonparticipants to have ID. There was no significant difference between WIC participants and 

nonparticipants in the prevalence of IDA. However, since one of the objectives of the study was to 

evaluate the relationship between household food security and ID, measures of very low food 

security and low food security were included among the covariates. If improved food security from 

WIC participation is partly responsible for reducing the incidence of ID, then the authors’ estimates 

of WIC effects are biased downward. 
78 

Table VIII.1. Studies Examining the Effect of WIC Participation on Child Health and Socioemotional and Cognitive DevStudy Data and Sample Design and Methods Black et al. 2004 Data: Third National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey (NHANES III) administered at urban medical centers in 5 states and Washington, DC (1998-2001) Sample: Caregivers of infants ≤12 months of age without private health insurance (N=5,923)

Treatment group: Individuals who received WIC assistance for their child Comparison group: (1) Eligible individuals who did not receive WIC assistance for their child because of reported access problems; (2) eligible individuals who did not receive WIC assistance for their child because of no perceived need Method: Multivariate regression

Compared to eligwith reported acc

Caregiver percehealth poor/fai

Compared to eligwith no perceived 

Caregiver percehealth poor/fai

Buescher et al. 2003 

Data: North Carolina birth certificates merged with Medicaid participation and cost data Sample: 1992 births with Medicaid enrollment at any time before 60 months (N=49,795) 

Treatment group: Children with high (>66% of eligible months), medium (34%-66%), or low (<34%) levels of WIC participation during the first 60 months of life Comparison group: Nonparticipants during first 60 months of life Methods: Multivariate regression 

Diagnosis and trea

Allergy Asthma Gastroenteritis Iron deficiency Otitis media Respiratory infe

Carlson and Senauer 2003 

Data: Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) (1988-1994) Sample: Nationally representative sample of 2- to 5-year olds in WIC-eligible households (N=1,816) 

Treatment group: Children in households where any family member participated in WIC in the past month Comparison group: Children in households without any family members participating in WIC in the past month Methods: Multivariate regression 

Child health obserexamination (0=exgood, 2=good, 3=

Lee et al. 2006 Data: Administrative data from the Integrated 

Database on Children’s Services in Illinois (IDB), merged with U.S. Census and vital statistics data Sample: Illinois Medicaid births between 1990 and 2000 (N=36,277) 

Treatment group: Children participating in WIC before the occurrence of a relevant health event (e.g., diagnosis of anemia) Comparison group: Children not participating in WIC or Food Stamps Method: Multivariate regression; maternal fixed effects 

Multivariate regres

Anemia Nutritional de

Maternal fixed-effe

Anemia Nutritional de

Park et al. 2009 Data: U.S. Food Security Survey Module and 

chart review of medical records (1998-2003) Sample: Low-income children <36 months old who received care at a large medical center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (N=2,853) 

Treatment group: Individuals participating in WIC Comparison group: Individuals who are lowincome but not participating in WICMethod: Multivariate regression 

Iron deficiency Iron-deficiency ane
79 

Study Data and Sample Design and Methods Rivera 2008 Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 

Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) (2001-2006) Sample: Children from 46 states and Washington, DC, whose biological mother was the respondent (N=9,685)

Treatment group: Enrolled during pregnancy 

regardless of postnatal participation Comparison group: Did not enroll during pregnancy, regardless of postnatal participation Methods: Propensity score matching

Highest quartile o

Child health sMental abilityMotor skills, 9 SocioemotionChild health sMental abilityMotor skills, 2Socioemotion

Schneider et al. 2008 

Data: Questionnaire and blood samples collected in WIC clinic laboratories in two California counties (2000-2002) Sample: Convenience sample of 12- to 36-month-old children recruited in WIC clinics (N=498) 

Treatment group: (1) Children enrolled in WIC; (2) children of mothers who participated in WIC during pregnancy Comparison group: (1) Children whose families are applying for WIC; (2) children of mothers who did not participate in WIC during pregnancy, but who are currently participating or are applying to enroll Method: Multivariate regression 

Child WIC particip

Anemia 

Prenatal WIC parti

Iron deficienc

Sparks 2010 Data: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – 

Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) Sample: Nationally representative sample of children born between January and December 2001, limited to families with incomes below 185% of poverty or families receiving Medicaid, food stamps, or TANF assistance since the birth of the child (N=6,100). 

Treatment group: Children in WICparticipating households who used WIC benefits in the last 30 days before the interview Comparison group: Children in a household that was eligible for WIC but not participating Method: Propensity score matching 

Asthma Gastrointestinal illRespiratory illnessEar infection Mother poor child 

Notes: “+++”, “++”, and “+” indicate a statistically significant positive association between WIC and the specific outcome at p<

respectively; “---”, “--”, and “-” indicate a statistically significant negative association between WIC and the specific outcom

p<0.1, respectively; “NS” indicates a nonsignificant finding. 

Table VIII.1 (continued)

81 

IX. RESEARCH OVERVIEW 

WIC continues to have an extensive research record. Increasingly, researchers are more 

concerned about the limitations of quasi-experimental methods in estimating a causal WIC effect and 

attempt to reduce selection bias through a careful assessment of the robustness of the estimates or 

through the application of more sophisticated methods, such as propensity score matching or 

mother fixed-effects. Despite the efforts to eliminate the issue of selection, it remains the most 

important consideration in interpreting study results. 

The pattern of findings from studies evaluating the association between WIC and birth 

outcomes, children’s diets or infant feeding practices is generally consistent across the different 

studies. Recent research continues to find a positive association between birth weight and prenatal 

WIC participation. However, estimates adjusted for gestational age bias, such as measures of fetal 

growth, indicate a weaker association with WIC. Overall, research suggests that WIC is associated 

with improved diets among children, as measured by the intake of fats, carbohydrates, added sugars 

and variety of foods consumed. As with earlier WIC evaluations, the most common finding in 

recent research is a lower likelihood of breastfeeding and a higher likelihood of formula feeding 

among WIC participants relative to nonparticipants. 

Research on the association between WIC and health care utilization generally indicates a higher 

utilization of preventive and curative health care services for both primary health care and dental 

care. Only two studies evaluate the consequences of higher health care utilization among WIC 

participants for Medicaid costs. One suggests a higher overall cost associated with WIC 

participation for both primary and dental care services, while the other suggests a reduction in dental 

care services among children aged 1-2, but not among older children. 

The findings for other infant and child health outcomes are generally inconclusive and in some 

cases are based on a limited number of studies. Research provides no consistent evidence on the 

association between WIC and children’s weight, height, or BMI. Evidence on whether WIC is 

associated with higher immunization rates is limited and inconclusive. Findings for children’s health 

status suggest a higher likelihood of diagnoses of common childhood illnesses among WIC 

participants based on data from Medicaid claims, but no clear evidence on the association between 

WIC and general health status as reported by a physician or the mother. ID and IDA tend to be 

lower among WIC participants when based on blood tests for the entire sample. 

The findings from this review generally parallel the findings based on a review of earlier 

research completed by Fox et al. (2004). As in the earlier review, the current report finds that 

research is most extensive in the area of prenatal WIC participation and birth outcomes. However, 

studies published since 2002 tend to be more conservative in dealing with issues of selection and 

gestational age bias, and more innovative in their approaches to addressing these issues. Few new 

studies have explored the utilization of health care and costs associated with WIC, and the ones that 

have been published in this area rely on data from the 1990s or early 2000s. Thus, our main findings 

regarding health care utilization and costs are based on studies published between 2003 and 2004 

that were also covered by Fox et al. (2004). New research using current data and wider geographic 

coverage is needed to assess whether the often-cited positive relationship between WIC participation 

and health care utilization applies to the existing WIC population. In light of the comprehensive 

revisions in the WIC food packages introduced in 2009, an important objective of future research 

should be to evaluate the extent to which the improved food packages promote healthier diets, 

higher rates of breastfeeding among postpartum women, and better health outcomes. 

83 

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A1 

APPENDIX A 

STUDY ABSTRACTS 

A.3 

Arsenault, J. E. and K. H. Brown. “Zinc Intake of US Preschool Children Exceeds New Dietary 

Reference Intakes.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 78, no. 5, 2003, pp. 1011–1017. 

ABSTRACT 

Background: The recent dietary reference intakes publication provides updated information on the 

physiologic and dietary requirements for zinc and proposes new tolerable upper intake levels. 

Objective: We analyzed dietary intake data of US preschool children to determine the prevalence of 

inadequate and excessive intakes of zinc. Design: Diets of 7474 nonbreastfeeding preschool 

children in the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (1994-1996 and 1998) were 

analyzed for the intakes of zinc and other dietary components, and factors associated with zinc 

intake were examined. Results: The mean intakes of zinc by children aged < 1 y, 1-3 y, and 4-5 y 

were 6.6, 7.6, and 9.1 mg/d, respectively. Less than 1% of children had usual zinc intakes below the 

adequate intake or estimated average requirement. The percentages of children with intakes 

exceeding the tolerable upper intake level were 92% (0-6 mo), 86% (7-12 mo), 51% (1-3 y), and 3% 

(4-5 y). Controlling for age and energy intake, zinc intake was greater in 1998 than in 1994 (P < 

0.0001) and was positively associated with participation in the Women, Infants, and Children 

Program (P < 0.001) and with the lowest income category (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Preschool 

children in the United States have dietary zinc intakes that exceed the new dietary reference intakes. 

Zinc intakes increased during the 4 y of the study. The present level of intake does not seem to pose 

a health problem, but if zinc intake continues to increase because of the greater availability of zincfortified foods in the US food supply, the amount of zinc consumed by children may become 

excessive. 
A.4 

Bhargava, Alok, and Aliaksandr Amialchuk. “Added Sugars Displaced the Use of Vital Nutrients in 

the National Food Stamp Program Survey.” Journal of Nutrition, vol. 137, no. 2, 2007, pp. 453–

460. 

ABSTRACT 

Recent increases in consumption of added sugars in the US can reduce intake of vital nutrients and 

increase the overall energy intakes. A comprehensive framework is necessary for addressing the 

controversy surrounding the effects of added sugars on nutrient intakes while controlling for dietary 

knowledge, behavioral factors, and total energy intakes, especially among low-income households. 

This paper analyzed the proximate determinants of 1-wk availability or use of added sugars by 913 

households participating in the National Food Stamp Program Survey conducted in 1996-97. In 

addition, households' use of protein; fiber; calcium; iron; β-carotene; vitamins A, C, E, B-6, and B12; folic acid; and potassium were explained by socioeconomic and behavioral factors and by added 

sugars use. Linear programming analyses were conducted for assessing the effects of food prices on 

added sugars use. Participation in Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children 

program, food stamp benefits, and consumption of low-fat diets were associated (P < 0.051 with 

lower added sugars use. Furthermore, greater use of added sugars significantly lowered households' 

uses of protein; iron; vitamins A, C, B-6, and B-12; and potassium. Behavioral and socioeconomic 

variables such as adopting a low-fat diet, consuming fruits and vegetables, saving money at grocery 

stores, frequency of shopping trips, skipping meals, and food insecurity were often important 

predictors of nutrient use. Overall, the results indicated that added sugars should be discouraged in 

dietary guidelines, because their adverse effects on diet quality were evident in this low-income 

population. 
A.5 

Bitler, Marianne P., and Janet Currie. “Does WIC Work? The Effects of WIC on Pregnancy and 

Birth Outcomes.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 24, no. 1, 2005, pp. 73–91. 

ABSTRACT 

Support for WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is 

based on the belief that “WIC works.” This consensus has lately been questioned by researchers 

who point out that most WIC research fails to properly control for selection into the program. This 

paper evaluates the selection problem using rich data from the national Pregnancy Risk Assessment 

Monitoring System. We show that relative to Medicaid mothers, all of whom are eligible for WIC, 

WIC participants are negatively selected on a wide array of observable dimensions, and yet WIC 

participation is associated with improved birth outcomes, even after controlling for observables and 

for a full set of state-year interactions intended to capture unobservables that vary at the state-year 

level. The positive impacts of WIC are larger among subsets of even more disadvantaged women, 

such as those who received public assistance last year, single high school dropouts, and teen 

mothers. 

 
A.6 

Bitler, Marianne P., and Janet Currie. “Medicaid at Birth, WIC Take Up, and Children’s Outcomes.” 

Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, WR-172, 2004. As of October 2, 2011: 

http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR172 

ABSTRACT 

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides 

food and nutritional advice to low-income women, and infants and children, who are income eligible 

and are nutritionally-at-risk. The effects of WIC on infants have been extensively studied, but 

children one to four are the most rapidly growing part of the WIC caseload, and little information is 

available about the effects of WIC on this group. Using data from the 1996 and 2001 panels of the 

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we show that Medicaid policies that affected 

take up among infants had long term effects on participation in the WIC program. By contrast, 

increases in the generosity of Medicaid towards older children increased WIC eligibility without 

having much impact on participation. Hence increases in WIC participation among children have 

not been driven by higher income families made eligible as a result of SCHIP, as some critics have 

argued. Our most striking finding is that WIC participation at age four has large and significant 

effects on the probability that a child is at risk of overweight (i.e. had BMI greater than the 85th 

percentile for sex and age). This suggests that either the nutrition education or the actual provision 

of healthy food is helping to prevent obesity among young children. This is an important measure of 

the success of the WIC program because of the importance of obesity as a public health threat, and 

because of the importance of establishing healthy eating habits early in life. 
A.7 

Black, Maureen M., Diana B. Cutts, Deborah A. Frank, Joni Geppert, Anne Skalicky, Suzette 

Levenson, Patrick H. Casey, Carol Berkowitz, Nieves Zaldivar, John T. Cook, Alan F. Meyers, 

and Tim Herren. “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children 

Participation and Infants’ Growth and Health: A Multisite Surveillance Study.” Pediatrics, vol. 

114, no. 1, 2004, pp. 169–176. 

ABSTRACT 

Context: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is 

the largest food supplement program in the United States, serving almost 7 500 000 participants in 

2002. Because the program is a grant program, rather than an entitlement program, Congress is not 

mandated to allocate funds to serve all eligible participants. Little is known about the effects of WIC 

on infant growth, health, and food security. Objective: To examine associations between WIC 

participation and indicators of underweight, overweight, length, caregiver-perceived health, and 

household food security among infants ≤12 months of age, at 6 urban hospitals and clinics. Design 

and Setting: A multisite study with cross-sectional surveys administered at urban medical centers in 

5 states and Washington, D.C., from August 1998 through December 2001. Participants: A total of 

5,923 WIC-eligible caregivers of infants ≤ 12 months of age were interviewed at hospital clinics and 

emergency departments. Main Outcome Measures: Weight-for-age, length-for-age, weight-forlength, caregiver’s perception of infant’s health, and household food security. Results: Ninety-one 

percent of WIC-eligible families were receiving WIC assistance. Of the eligible families not receiving 

WIC assistance, 64% reported access problems and 36% denied a need for WIC. The weight and 

length of WIC assistance recipients, adjusted for age and gender, were consistent with national 

normative values. With control for potential confounding family variables (site, housing subsidy, 

employment status, education, and receipt of food stamps or Temporary Assistance for Needy 

Families) and infant variables (race/ethnicity, birth weight, months breastfed, and age), infants who 

did not receive WIC assistance because of access problems were more likely to be underweight 

(weight-for-age z score = -0.23 vs 0.009), short (length-for-age z score = -0.23 vs -0.02), and 

perceived as having fair or poor health (adjusted odds ratio: 1.92; 95% confidence interval: 1.29–

2.87), compared with WIC assistance recipients. Rates of overweight, based on weight-for-length of 

>95th percentile, varied from 7% to 9% and did not differ among the 3 groups but were higher than 

the 5% expected from national growth charts. Rates of food insecurity were consistent with national 

data for minority households with children. Families that did not receive WIC assistance because of 

access problems had higher rates of food insecurity (28%) than did WIC participants (23%), 

although differences were not significant after covariate control. Caregivers who did not perceive a 

need for WIC services had more economic and personal resources than did WIC participants and 

were less likely to be food-insecure, but there were no differences in infants’ weight-for-age, 

perceived health, or overweight between families that did not perceive a need for WIC services and 

those that received WIC assistance. Conclusions. Infants ≤12 months of age benefit from WIC 

participation. Health care providers should promote WIC utilization for eligible families and 

advocate that WIC receive support to reduce waiting lists and eliminate barriers that interfere with 

access. 
A.8 

Brodsky, Jennifer L., Samara Viner-Brown, and Arden S. Handler. “Changes in Maternal Cigarette 

Smoking Among Pregnant WIC Participants in Rhode Island.” Maternal & Child Health Journal, 

vol. 13, no. 6, 2009, pp. 822–831. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: To describe the relationship between the timing of entry into the Special Supplemental 

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) among pregnant women in Rhode 

Island (RI) and changes in maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) during pregnancy. Methods: MCS 

data gathered by WIC were analyzed for pregnant women who self-identified as smokers at the 

onset of pregnancy between the years 2001–2005. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were 

performed to examine the relationship between timing of WIC entry and both increased and 

decreased/quit MCS during pregnancy. Results: Self-reports from smokers indicated that 9.5% quit 

smoking, 24.6% decreased MCS, 26.8% experienced no change, 33.5% increased MCS, and 5.6% 

attempted to quit MCS but failed during pregnancy. The adjusted odds ratio for smokers with 1st 

trimester WIC entry and increased MCS was 0.64 (95% CI 0.52, 0.79). Among smokers with 1st 

trimester PNC entry, the adjusted odds ratio for smokers with 1st trimester WIC entry and 

decreased/quit MCS was 1.51 (95% CI 1.17, 1.96). Conclusions: Early WIC entry appears to be 

associated with improvements in MCS. Participants who entered WIC in the first trimester of 

pregnancy were less likely to increase smoking during pregnancy, and if they also had first trimester 

prenatal care, were more likely to decrease/quit smoking compared to those who entered WIC later. 

Programs that increase the rates of first trimester WIC entry may contribute to lower rates of MCS 

in the WIC population. 
A.9 

Buescher, Paul A., Stephanie J. Horton, Barbara L. Devaney, Sarah J. Roholt, Alice J. Lenihan, J. T. 

Whitmire, and Jonathan B. Kotch. “Child Participation in WIC: Medicaid Costs and Use of 

Health Care Services.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 93, no. 1, 2003, pp. 145–150. 

ABSTRACT 

We used data from birth certificates, Medicaid, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to examine the relationship of child participation in WIC to 

Medicaid costs and use of health care services in North Carolina. We linked Medicaid enrollment, 

Medicaid paid claims, and WIC participation files to birth certificates for children born in North 

Carolina in 1992. We used multiple regression analysis to estimate the effects of WIC participation 

on the use of health care services and Medicaid costs. Medicaid-enrolled children participating in the 

WIC program showed greater use of all types of health care services compared with Medicaidenrolled children who were not WIC participants. The health care needs of low-income children 

who participate in WIC may be better met than those of low-income children not participating in 

WIC. 
A.10 

Bunik, Maya, Nancy F. Krebs, Brenda Beaty, Maureen McClatchey, and David L. Olds. 

“Breastfeeding and WIC Enrollment in the Nurse Family Partnership Program.” Breastfeeding 

Medicine, vol. 4, no. 3, 2009, pp. 145–149. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: Recent studies have raised the issue of lower breastfeeding rates for mothers enrolled in 

the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). We wanted 

to explore this association of WIC and lower breastfeeding in Nurse Family Partnership Program 

(NFP), a national representative group of mother–baby pairs on which extensive background data 

are available. Our aim was to compare breastfeeding rates at 6 and 12 months in NFP high-risk 

mothers who were enrolled in WIC to those who were not enrolled in WIC. Methods: We 

conducted a retrospective secondary analysis in mothers and infants from this cohort for 2000–2005 

(n = 3,570). Results: We found that at 6 months of age, 87.8% of mothers who were not 

breastfeeding were enrolled in WIC as compared to 82.6% of mothers who were breastfeeding (p < 

0.001). However, in the multivariate analysis, WIC was no longer a significant predictor of 

breastfeeding. Conclusions: Prospective evaluation of this issue is warranted particularly with the 

implementation of changes in the WIC Food Package and Breastfeeding Promotion. 
A.11 

Carlson, Andrea, and Ben Senauer. “The Impact of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children on Child Health.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 

85, no. 2, 2003, pp. 479–491. 

ABSTRACT 

Data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are used to analyze the 

effect of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program and other factors on the health of U.S. 

preschool children. Ordered probit equations are estimated for the physician’s overall evaluation of 

the child’s health. The WIC Program has a significant positive impact on the overall health of 

children. In particular, children in households participating in WIC are significantly more likely to be 

in excellent health. Increased household income also improves their health. 

 
A.12 

Chatterji, Pinka, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. “WIC Participation, Breastfeeding Practices, and WellChild Care Among Unmarried, Low-Income Mothers.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, 

no. 8, 2004, pp. 1324–1327. 

ABSTRACT 

We estimated the effect of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 

Children (WIC) participation in 1999 to 2000 on breastfeeding initiation and duration and well-child 

care. We applied multivariate regression to a sample of 2,136 unmarried, low-income, urban mothers 

from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. WIC participation was associated with small 

increases in the probabilities of initiating breastfeeding and having had at least 4 well-child visits 

since birth--behaviors that benefit infants beyond the newborn period--but not with breastfeeding 

duration. 

 
A.13 

Cox, Suzanne M. “Prenatal Care Experience and Infant Health Outcomes Among Low-Income 

Women in Eight States, 1996–2003.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2009. 

ABSTRACT 

A study of the relationship between low-income mothers’ prenatal care (PNC) site, and associated 

factors, and their infants’ outcomes was carried out using a sample of women from eight states. The 

sample of 45,277 women was derived from the Pregnancy Assessment Monitoring System, which 

includes information from a random sample of birth certificates and linked postpartum follow-back 

survey data. Characteristics of the sample, where they received PNC, and their PNC experiences 

were summarized for the time period, 1996 to 2003. The unique methodological contribution of this 

study is the development of a Prenatal Care Experience Index, which is a composite variable that 

allows for the simultaneous measurement of receipt of health promotion advice and PNC 

utilization, stratified by participation in the Special Supplementary Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC), resulting in an eight-category variable. Overall, there was not an 

increased risk for adverse outcomes among low-income women receiving care at either public or 

private PNC sites; although infants of women that received PNC at hospital clinics had a slightly 

increased risk of adverse outcomes, including very low birth weight (<1500 grams), low birth weight 

(<2500 grams), and very preterm birth (<32 weeks gestational age). Insufficient prenatal care 

delivery including inadequate communication of health promotion advice and/or failure to 

participate in WIC was significantly associated with adverse outcomes among infants including: very 

low birth weight, low birth weight, very preterm birth, and preterm birth (<37 weeks gestational 

age). Women who received PNC at publicly funded sites were more likely to report receiving 

adequate health promotion advice and were more likely to participate in WIC than women at other 

PNC sites. Women who received care at privately funded sites were more likely to start their PNC 

early and get the recommended number of visits compared to other PNC sites. However, adequate 

care utilization was not significantly protective against adverse outcomes. The findings support 

policy and funding decisions which ensure that regardless of site of care, the content of care for lowincome women includes adequate health promotion as well as referral to the WIC program. 
A.14 

 

Daponte, Beth O., Amelia Haviland, and Joseph B. Kadane. “To What Degree Does Food 

Assistance Help Poor Households Acquire Enough Food? A Joint Examination of Public and 

Private Sources of Food Assistance.” Journal of Poverty, vol. 8, no. 2, 2004, pp. 63–87. 

ABSTRACT 

We study the efficacy of public and private food assistance in alleviating food shortages among poor 

households by jointly considering the effects of all major forms of domestic food assistance—the 

Food Stamp Program, WIC, and food pantries. The analyses are based on detailed data collected in 

1993 from 398 low-income households in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. We examine the effect 

each of the widely available forms of food assistance has on helping poor households acquire 

enough resources potentially to meet basic nutritional requirements. Research findings suggest that 

compared with other forms of food assistance, the receipt of a significant amount in food stamps 

has a much greater impact on whether a household attains at least the Thrifty Food Plan than the 

receipt of food from a food pantry or through the WIC program. 

 
A.15 

El-Bastawissi, Amira, Riley Peters, Kristin Sasseen, Tom Bell, and Rebecca Manolopoulos. “Effect 

of the Washington Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children 

(WIC) on Pregnancy Outcomes.” Maternal and Child Health Journal, vol. 11, no. 6, 2007, pp. 611–

621. 

ABSTRACT 

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. 
A.16 

Figlio, David, Sarah Hamersma, and Jeffrey Roth. “Does Prenatal WIC Participation Improve Birth 

Outcomes? New Evidence from Florida.” Journal of Public Economics, vol. 93, no. 1-2, 2009, pp. 

235–245. 

ABSTRACT 

We study the effects of prenatal receipt of nutritional and educational services provided by the 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on birth outcomes. Our 

identification strategy consists of two elements: (1) identifying families in a very tight income range 

surrounding the WIC eligibility threshold and (2) exploiting a policy change that differentially 

influenced the WIC take-up rates of the families on each side of the eligibility threshold. We conduct 

this analysis by merging three large statewide administrative data sets from Florida concerning all 

births during the period 1997–2001. We match the birth records of infants and the school records of 

their older siblings in order to relatively precisely identify “marginally eligible” and “marginally 

ineligible” families that are very similar in their observable characteristics. We find that WIC 

participation has no effect on mean birth weight and gestational age, but substantially reduces the 

likelihood of adverse birth outcomes, e.g. birth weights below 2,500 g. 
A.17 

Flower, Kori B., Michael Willoughby, R. J. Cadigan, Eliana M. Perrin, Greg Randolph, and Family 

Life Project Investigative Team. “Understanding Breastfeeding Initiation and Continuation in 

Rural Communities: A Combined Qualitative/Quantitative Approach.” Maternal and Child 

Health Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, 2008, pp. 402–414. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: To determine factors associated with breastfeeding in rural communities. Methods: We 

combined qualitative and quantitative data from the Family Life Project, consisting of (1) a 

longitudinal cohort study (N = 1,292) of infants born September 2003-2004; and (2) a parallel 

ethnographic study (N = 30 families). Demographic characteristics, maternal and infant health 

factors, and health services were used to predict breastfeeding initiation and discontinuation using 

logistic and Cox regression models, respectively. Ethnographic interviews identified additional 

reasons for not initiating or continuing breastfeeding. Results: Fifty-five percent of women initiated 

breastfeeding and 18% continued for at least 6 months. Maternal employment at 2 months and 

receiving WIC were associated with decreased breastfeeding initiation and continuation. 

Ethnographic data suggested that many women had never even considered breastfeeding and often 

discontinued breastfeeding due to discomfort, embarrassment, and lack of assistance. Conclusions:

Breastfeeding rates in these rural communities lag behind national averages. Opportunities for 

increasing breastfeeding in rural communities include enhancing workplace support, maximizing the 

role of WIC, increasing hospital breastfeeding assistance, and creating a social environment in which 

breastfeeding is normative. 
A.18 

Foster, E. M., Miao Jiang, and Christina Gibson-Davis. “The Effect of the WIC Program on the 

Health of Newborns.” Health Services Research, vol. 45, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1083–1104. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: To determine the effect of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC) on birth outcomes. Data Source: The Child Development Supplement 

(CDS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID provides extensive data on the 

income and well-being of a representative sample of U.S. families from 1968 to present. The CDS 

collects information on the children in PSID families ranging from cognitive, behavioral, and health 

status to their family and neighborhood environment. The first two waves of the CDS were 

conducted in 1997 and 2002, respectively. We use information on 3,181 children and their mothers. 

Study Design: We use propensity score matching with multiple imputations to examine whether 

WIC program influences birth outcomes: birth weight, prematurity, maternal report of the infant’s 

health, small for gestational age, and placement in the neonatal intensive care unit. Furthermore, we 

use a fixed-effects model to examine the above outcomes controlling for mother-specific 

unobservables. Principal Findings: After using propensity scores to adjust for confounding 

factors, WIC shows no statistically significant effects for any of six outcomes. Fixed-effects models, 

however, reveal some effects that are statistically significant and fairly substantial in size. These 

involve preterm birth and birth weight. Conclusions: Overall, the WIC program had moderate 

effects, but findings were sensitive to the estimation method used. 

 
A.19 

Gueorguieva, Ralitza, Steven B. Morse, and Jeffrey Roth. “Length of Prenatal Participation in WIC 

and Risk of Delivering a Small for Gestational Age Infant: Florida, 1996–2004.” Maternal and 

Child Health Journal, vol. 13, no. 4, 2009, pp. 479–488. 

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the association between length of prenatal participation in WIC and a marker 

of infant morbidity. By focusing on small for gestational age, we consider one of the possible 

pathways through which prenatal nutrition affects fetal growth. Design/Methods: The study 

sample consists of 369,535 matched mother-infant pairs drawn from all singleton live births in 

Florida hospitals from 1996 to 2004. All subjects received WIC and Medicaid-funded prenatal 

services during pregnancy. We controlled for selection bias on observed variables using a generalized 

propensity scoring approach and performed separate analyses by gestational age category to control 

for simultaneity bias. Results: Ten percent increase in the percent of time in WIC was associated 

with 2.5% decrease (95% CI: 2.1–3.0%) in the risk of a full-term an SGA infant. The risk was also 

significantly decreased for very preterm and late preterm infants (29-33 and 34-36 weeks gestation) 

but not for extremely preterm infants (23- 28 weeks gestation). Conclusions: The observed small 

negative dose response relationship between percent of pregnancy spent in WIC and fetal growth 

restriction implies that longer participation in the program confers a small measure of protection 

against delivering an SGA infant. 

 
A.20 

Hendricks, Kristy, Ronette Briefel, Timothy Novak, and Paula Ziegler. “Maternal and Child 

Characteristics Associated with Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices” Journal of the American 

Dietetic Association, 2006, vol. 106, no. 1, 2006, pp. 135–148. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: To describe maternal/child characteristics associated with important practices of feeding 

U.S. infants and toddlers aged 4 to 24 months. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of data collected in 

the 2002 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study. Maternal/child characteristics associated with 

compliance to American Academy of Pediatrics feeding guidelines, and maternal/child 

characteristics associated with specific feeding patterns were assessed. Subjects: A national random 

sample of mothers (n = 2,515) whose infants and toddlers aged 4 to 24 months made up the 

Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study cohort. Statistical Analysis: Student t tests were used to 

compare the means and standard errors and were considered significant if P<.05. To predict if the 

mother/child met a particular recommendation, logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios 

(ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Having a college education was the maternal 

characteristic associated with the largest number of positive child feeding behaviors. Mothers with a 

college education were significantly more likely than mothers without a college education to initiate 

breastfeeding and breastfeed the child to age 6 and 12 months (OR 2.8, 3.2, and 3.9, respectively). 

College-educated mothers were significantly more likely to comply with the American Academy of 

Pediatrics juice and complementary feeding recommendations (OR 1.4 and 2.0). In addition, infants 

and toddlers whose mother had a college education were more likely to consume fruit and less likely 

to consume sweetened beverages and desserts or candy. Ever breastfeeding the sample child, living 

in the western region of the United States, and being married and older were also associated with 

multiple positive practices. The child being in day care was associated with decreased duration of 

breastfeeding at age 6 and 12 months as well as with consumption of salty snacks. Conclusions:

Initiatives to improve infant and toddler feeding practices should focus on assisting mothers who 

have less than a college education, who are unmarried, whose child is in day care, or who are 

enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. 
A.21 

Hoynes, Hilary W., Marianne E. Page, and Ann H. Stevens. “Is a WIC Start a Better Start? 

Evaluating WIC’s Impact on Infant Health Using Program Introduction.” Cambridge, MA: 

National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 15589, 2009. 

ABSTRACT 

The goal of federal food and nutrition programs in the United States is to improve the nutritional 

well-being and health of low-income families. A large body of literature evaluates the extent to 

which the Supplemental Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) has accomplished this 

goal, but most studies have been based on research designs that compare program participants to 

non-participants. If selection into these programs is non-random then such comparisons will lead to 

biased estimates of the program's true effects. In this study we use the rollout of the WIC program 

across counties to estimate the impact of the program on infant health. We find that the 

implementation of WIC lead to an increase in average birth weight and a decrease in the fraction of 

births that are classified as low birth weight. We find no evidence that these estimates are driven by 

changes in fertility. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the initiation of WIC lead to a ten 

percent increase in the birth weight of infants born to participating mothers. 

 
A.22 

Ishdorj, Ariun, Helen H. Jensen, and Justin Tobias. “Intra-Household Allocation and Consumption 

of WIC-Approved Foods: A Bayesian Approach.” Center for Agricultural and Rural 

Development (CARD) Publications 07-wp452, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development 

(CARD) at Iowa State University, 2007. 

ABSTRACT 

WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is a widely 

studied public food assistance program that aims to provide foods, nutrition education, and other 

services to at-risk, low-income children and pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women. From 

a policy perspective, it is of interest to assess the efficacy of the WIC program - how much, if at all, 

does the program improve the nutritional outcomes of WIC families? In this paper we address two 

important issues related to the WIC program that have not been extensively addressed in the past. 

First, although the WIC program is primarily devised with the intent of improving the nutrition of 

“target” children and mothers, it is possible that WIC may also change the consumption of foods by 

non-targeted individuals within the household. Second, although WIC eligibility status is 

predetermined, participation in the program is voluntary and therefore potentially endogenous. We 

make use of a triangular treatment-response model in which the dependent variable is the 

requirement-adjusted calcium intake from milk consumption and the endogenous variable is WIC 

participation, and estimate it using Bayesian methods. Using data from the CSFII 1994-1996, we 

find that the correlation between the errors of our two equations is strong and positive, suggesting 

that families participating in WIC have an unobserved propensity for high calcium consumption. 

The direct “structural” WIC parameters, however, do not support the idea that WIC participation 

leads to increased levels of calcium consumption from milk. 
A.23 

Jacknowitz, Alison, Daniel Novillo, and Laura Tiehen. “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children and Infant Feeding Practices.” Pediatrics, vol. 119, no. 2, 2007, 

pp. 281–289. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: This study examined the association between participation in the Special Supplemental 

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and adherence to 4 American Academy 

of Pediatrics recommendations on infant feeding. Methods: We used data from the Early 

Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, which is nationally representative of children born in 

2001. We estimated regression models to assess relationships between program participation and 

adherence to American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations on exclusive breastfeeding and the 

introduction of infant formula, cow’s milk, and solid foods. Results: Regression results indicated 

that WIC participation was associated with a 5.9 percentage point decrease in the likelihood of 

exclusive breastfeeding for ≥4 months and a 1.9-percentage point decrease in the likelihood of 

exclusive breastfeeding for ≥6 months. Program mothers were 8.5 percentage points less likely than 

nonparticipants to adhere to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to delay 

introduction of infant formula until month 6. Program mothers were 2.5 percentage points more 

likely than nonparticipants to delay the introduction of cow's milk until month 8. Program 

participants were 4.5 percentage points less likely than nonparticipants to delay the introduction of 

solid foods for ≥4 months. However, the difference between participants and nonparticipants 

disappeared by month 6. Conclusions: Results suggest that, although program participants are less 

likely to breastfeed exclusively than eligible nonparticipants, program-provided infant formula is an 

important option for mothers who do not breastfeed exclusively. The program faces the challenge 

to encourage breastfeeding without undermining incentives to follow other recommended infant 

feeding practices. Recent changes proposed to the food packages by the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service are consistent with the goal of increasing adherence to 

recommended infant feeding practices among participants. 
A.24 

Jiang, Miao, E. M. Foster, and Christina Gibson-Davis. “The Effect of WIC on Breastfeeding: A 

New Look at an Established Relationship.” Children & Youth Services Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2010, 

pp. 264–273. 

ABSTRACT 

Although the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has 

been credited with increasing birth weights and improving child health, the program has been 

criticized for reducing breastfeeding through the provision of free formula. Yet WIC recipients are 

socio-economically disadvantaged as compared to non-participants. As a result, whether lower 

breastfeeding rates reflect the effect of the program or the types of women who participate is 

unknown. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics—Child Development Supplement, 

this study uses propensity scores and fixed-effects estimation to determine the effect of WIC on 

breastfeeding initiation and duration. Our study is the first to use a method other than Ordinary 

Least Squares to analyze the association between WIC and breastfeeding behaviors. Results indicate 

that the negative association is likely spurious, arising from the poor socio-demographic profile of 

participants. 

 

 
A.25 

Joyce, Ted, Diane Gibson, and Silvie Colman. “The Changing Association between Prenatal 

Participation in WIC and Birth Outcomes in New York City.” Journal of Policy Analysis and 

Management, vol. 24, no. 4, 2005, pp. 661–685. 

ABSTRACT 

We analyze the relationship between prenatal WIC participation and birth outcomes in New York 

City from 1988—2001. The analysis is unique for several reasons. First, we have over 800,000 births 

to women on Medicaid, the largest sample ever used to analyze prenatal participation in WIC. 

Second, we focus on measures of fetal growth distinct from preterm birth, since there is little clinical 

support for a link between nutritional supplementation and premature delivery. Third, we restrict the 

primary analysis to women on Medicaid who have no previous live births and who initiate prenatal 

care within the first four months of pregnancy. Our goal is to lessen heterogeneity between WIC 

and non‐WIC participants by limiting the sample to highly motivated women who have no 

experience with WIC from a previous pregnancy. Fourth, we analyze a large sub‐sample of twin 

deliveries. Multifetal pregnancies increase the risk of anemia and fetal growth retardation and thus 

may benefit more than singletons from nutritional supplementation. We find no relationship 

between prenatal WIC participation and measures of fetal growth among singletons. We find a 

modest pattern of association between WIC and fetal growth among U.S.‐born Black twins. Our 

findings suggest that prenatal participation in WIC has had a minimal effect on adverse birth 

outcomes in New York City. 
A.26 

Joyce, Ted, Andrew Racine, and Cristina Yunzal-Butler. “Reassessing the WIC Effect: Evidence 

from the Pregnancy Nutrition Surveillance System.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 

27, no. 2, 2008, pp. 277–303. 

ABSTRACT 

Recent analyses differ on how effective the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants and Children (WIC) is at improving infant health. We use data from nine states that 

participate in the Pregnancy Nutrition Surveillance System to address limitations in previous work. 

With information on the mother’s timing of WIC enrollment, we test whether greater exposure to 

WIC is associated with less smoking, improved weight gain during pregnancy, better birth outcomes, 

and greater likelihood of breastfeeding. Our results suggest that much of the often reported 

association between WIC and lower rates of preterm birth is likely spurious, the result of gestational 

age bias. We find modest effects of WIC on fetal growth, inconsistent associations between WIC 

and smoking, limited associations with gestational weight gain, and some relationship with 

breastfeeding. A WIC effect exists, but on fewer margins and with less impact than has been claimed 

by policy analysts and advocates. 

 
A.27 

Khoury, A. J., S. W. Moazzem, C. M. Jarjoura, C. Carothers, and A. Hinton. “Breast-Feeding 

Initiation in Low-Income Women: Role of Attitudes, Support, and Perceived Control.” Women’s 

Health Issues: Official Publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, vol. 15, no. 2, 2005, pp. 64–

72. 

ABSTRACT 

Despite the documented health and emotional benefits of breast-feeding to women and children, 

breast-feeding rates are low among subgroups of women. In this study, we examine factors 

associated with breast-feeding initiation in low-income women, including Theory of Planned 

Behavior measures of attitude, support, and perceived control, as well as sociodemographic 

characteristics. A mail survey, with telephone follow-up, of 733 postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries in 

Mississippi was conducted in 2000. The breast-feeding initiation rate in this population was 38%. 

Women who were older, white, non-Hispanic, college-educated, married, not certified for the 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and not working full-time were 

more likely to breast-feed than formula-feed at hospital discharge. Attitudes regarding benefits and 

barriers to breast-feeding, as well as health care system and social support, were associated with 

breast-feeding initiation at the multivariate level. Adding the health care system support variables to 

the regression model, and specifically support from lactation specialists and hospital nurses, 

explained the association between breast-feeding initiation and women’s perceived control over the 

time and social constraints barriers to breast-feeding. The findings support the need for health care 

system interventions, family interventions, and public health education campaigns to promote 

breast-feeding in low-income women. 
A.28 

Knol, Linda L., Betsy Haughton, and Eugene C. Fitzhugh. “Food Insufficiency Is Not Related to 

the Overall Variety of Foods Consumed by Young Children in Low-Income Families.” Journal of 

the American Dietetic Association, vol. 104, no. 4, 2004, pp. 640–644. 

ABSTRACT 

This study explored the relationship between food sufficiency status and redundancy of food 

choices, or dietary variety, among children in low-income families using the Variety Score from the 

Healthy Eating Index. Two samples of children ages 2 to 3 (n = 1,242) and 4 to 8 years (n = 1,506) 

were selected from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals 1994–1996, 1998 and then 

classified as either food sufficient, food sufficient with limitations, or food insufficient. Mean variety 

scores were low for all children, but did not differ by food sufficiency status for either age group. 

However, they did differ by Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 

Children participation and region of the country for the younger and older children, respectively. 

Results suggest the importance of nutrition education and food assistance programs that enhance 

dietary variety. Further research should explore how food assistance program participation is related 

to dietary variety and the degree to which variety within food groups is related to food security. 
A.29 

Kowaleski-Jones, Lori, and Greg J. Duncan. “Effects of Participation in the WIC Program on 

Birthweight: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.” American Journal of 

Public Health, vol. 92, no. 5, 2002, pp. 799–804. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: This study sought to estimate the impact on birthweight of maternal participation in the 

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Methods: WIC 

estimates were based on sibling models incorporating data on children born between 1990 and 1996 

to women taking part in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results: Fixed-effects 

estimates indicated that prenatal WIC participation was associated with a 0.075 unit difference (95% 

confidence interval [CI] = -0.007, 0.157) in siblings’ logged birthweight. At the 88-oz. (2,464g) lowbirthweight cutoff, this difference translated into an estimated impact of 6.6 oz. (184.8g). 

Conslusion: Earlier WIC impact estimates may have been biased by unmeasured characteristics 

affecting both program participation and birth outcomes. Our approach controlled for such biases 

and revealed a significant positive association between WIC participation and birthweight.
A.30 

Kranz, Sibylle. “Meeting the Dietary Reference Intakes for Fiber: Sociodemographic Characteristics 

of Preschoolers with High Fiber Intakes.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 96, no. 9, 2006, 

pp. 1538–1541. 

ABSTRACT 

To better understand the public health impact of the National Academy of Sciences’ Dietary 

Reference Intakes (DRIs) for fiber in preschoolers, I analyzed data from the United States 

Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intake in Individuals for 5437 preschoolers 

and examined socio-demographic predictors of meeting the DRIs. Overall, only 12% of the children 

met the DRIs. Older children (age 4 and 5 years) were less likely than younger children, girls were 

less likely than boys, and children from medium-income families (those earning 186% to 350% of 

the poverty guidelines, with poverty set at 100%) were least likely to meet the DRIs. Low-income 

children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 

Children were twice as likely as nonparticipants to meet the DRIs. The public should be educated 

about the importance of increasing fiber density in the diet. 
A.31 

Kranz, Sibylle, and Anna Siega-Riz. “Sociodemographic Determinants of Added Sugar Intake in 

Preschoolers 2 to 5 Years Old.” The Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. 6, 2002, pp. 667–672. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: To determine sociodemographic predictors of added sugar intake from a national 

representative sample of 2- to 5-year-old children. Study design: Cross-sectional study that used 

dietary intake data of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intake in 

Individuals 1994 to 1996 and 1998 (n = 5652). Amount of added sugar intake in teaspoons per day, 

teaspoons per 100 kcal, and percent of total energy was calculated by selected sociodemographic 

variables, accounting for sample design and weighted to permit inferences applicable to the total 

population. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to predict added sugar intake. Results:

Average added sugar consumption was 15.4 tsp/d (15.7% of total energy). Significant differences 

were observed by several socio-demographic characteristics. Multivariate models predicting energyadjusted intake indicated strong associations with age, ethnicity, income, day care/school attendance, 

Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation, region of residence, 

and female head of household’s educational level. Conclusions: The identified sociodemographic 

predictors of high added sugar intake might help target public health messages to improve children’s 

diet quality and prevent future chronic diseases 
A.32 

Lazariu-Bauer, Victoria, Howard Stratton, Robert Pruzek, and Mary L. Woelfel. “A Comparative 

Analysis of Effects of Early Versus Late Prenatal WIC Participation on Birth Weight: NYS, 

1995.” Maternal & Child Health Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, 2004, pp. 77–86. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: This study examined the effects of prenatal participation in the NYS WIC Program on 

birth weight through enhanced control of selection bias and gestational age bias. Program effects 

were assessed separately for White, Black, and Hispanic women and subpopulations defined by 

values of Kotelchuck index of adequacy of prenatal care utilization. Methods: 1995 New York State 

Vital Statistics records were linked to WIC certifications, administrative and check redemption files, 

and to the 1990 federal census of NY county level data. The final data set contained 77,601 records. 

Birth weight among WIC participants who enrolled early and participated longer were compared to 

those who enrolled late and participated a shorter time. Selection bias was addressed using 

classification tree methods as part of a propensity score analysis. Gestational age bias was addressed 

by analyzing preterm and full-term pregnancies separately. Results: Adjusted estimates showed a 

significant positive effect of longer prenatal WIC participation on birth outcomes for all groups 

studied. Infants born to WIC participants who enrolled early were heavier than those who enrolled 

late by, on average, 70 g for full-term and 129 grams for preterm. Black and Hispanic full-term 

infants experienced larger WIC effects than Whites (79, 75, 43 g, respectively). Looking at full-term 

pregnancies using Kotelchuck’s index indicated that effects of longer prenatal WIC participation 

were greatest for the inadequate prenatal care group (83 g). Conclusion: Longer prenatal WIC 

participation was associated with an increase in birth weight overall and for all groups studied. The 

effect on birth weight of longer participation in WIC was greatest in Black and Hispanic, inadequate 

and no prenatal care groups. 
A.33 

Lee, Bong J., and Lucy Mackey-Bilaver. “Effects of WIC and Food Stamp Program Participation on 

Child Outcomes.” Contractor and Cooperator Report No. 27. Washington, DC: USDA, ERS, 

December 2006. 

ABSTRACT 

This study examines the relationship between WIC and Food Stamp Program participation and 

young children’s health and maltreatment outcomes, utilizing a unique individual-level longitudinal 

database linking administrative data sets on WIC and Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation, 

Medicaid enrollment and claims, and child abuse and neglect reports in Illinois. Using Ordinary 

Least Square (OLS) methods, the data show that any of the three program participation types (joint 

WIC and FSP, WIC only, and FSP only) is associated with a lower risk of abuse and neglect reports, 

and of diagnosis of several nutrition related health problems such as anemia, failure to thrive, and 

nutritional deficiency. When we control for the possible selection bias using sibling fixed-effects 

models, the results were essentially unchanged suggesting no evidence of selection bias in the OLS 

results. The findings are significant indicators of the benefits of WIC and FSP participation among 

low-income young children. Furthermore, the findings about the lower risk of abuse and neglect is 

significant because it offers some evidence that participation in programs such as WIC and FSP that 

offer family supports not directly aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect may protect children. 
A.34 

Lee, J. Y., R. G. Rozier, E. C. Norton, and W. F. Vann, Jr. “Addressing Selection Bias in Dental 

Health Services Research.” Journal of Dental Research, vol. 84, no. 10, 2005, pp. 942–946. 

ABSTRACT 

When randomization is not possible, researchers must control for non-random assignment to 

experimental groups. One technique for statistical adjustment for non-random assignment is 

through the use of a two-stage analytical technique. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate 

the use of this technique to control for selection bias in examining the effects of the The 

Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children's (WIC) on dental visits. From 5 data 

sources, an analysis file was constructed for 49,512 children ages 1-5 years. The two-stage technique 

was used to control for selection bias in WIC participation, the potentially endogenous variable. 

Specification tests showed that WIC participation was not random and that selection bias was 

present. The effects of the WIC on dental use differed by 36% after adjustment for selection bias by 

means of the two-stage technique. This technique can be used to control for potential selection bias 

in dental research when randomization is not possible. 
A.35 

Lee, Jessica Y., R. G. Rozier, Edward C. Norton, Jonathan B. Kotch, and William F. Vann, Jr. 

“Effects of WIC Participation on Children’s use of Oral Health Services.” American Journal of 

Public Health, vol. 94, no. 5, 2004, pp. 772–777. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: We estimated the effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC) on dental services use by Medicaid children in North Carolina. 

Methods: We used linked Medicaid claims and enrollment files, WIC files, and the area resource file 

to compare dental services use for children enrolled in WIC with those not enrolled. We used 

multivariate models that controlled for child clustering and employed 2-step methodology to control 

for selection bias. Results: Children who participated in WIC had an increased probability of having 

a dental visit, were more likely to use preventive and restorative services, and were less likely to use 

emergency services. Conclusions: Children’s WIC participation improved access to dental care 

services that should lead to improved oral health. 
A.36 

Lee, Jessica Y., R. G. Rozier, Edward C. Norton, Jonathan B. Kotch, and William F. Vann, Jr.. “The 

Effects of the Women, Infants, and Children’s Supplemental Food Program on Dentally 

Related Medicaid Expenditures.” Journal of Public Health Dentistry, vol. 64, no. 2, 2004, pp. 76–81. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: This study estimates the effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on dentally related Medicaid expenditures for young children. 

Methods: We used a five-year cohort study design to compare dentally related Medicaid 

expenditures for children enrolled in WIC versus those not enrolled for each year of life up to age 5 

years. There were 49,795 children born in North Carolina in 1992 who met the inclusion criteria for 

the study. Their birth records were linked to Medicaid enrollment and claims files, WIC master files, 

and the Area Resource File. Our analysis strategy included a logit and OLS two-part model with CPI 

dollar adjustments. Results: Children who participated in WIC at ages 1 and 2 years had 

significantly less dentally related expenditures than those who did not participate. WIC participation 

at age 3 years did not have a significant effect. Fewer WIC children received dental care under 

general anesthesia than non-WIC children. Conclusions: The WIC program has the potential for 

decreasing dentally related costs to the Medicaid program, while increasing use of dental services. 

 

 
A.37 

Luman, Elizabeth T., Mary M. McCauley, Abigail Shefer, and Susan Y. Chu. “Maternal 

Characteristics Associated with Vaccination of Young Children.” Pediatrics, vol. 111, no. 5, 2003, 

pp. 1215–1218. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: Mothers can be instrumental in gaining access to vaccination services for their children. 

This study examines maternal characteristics associated with vaccination in U.S. preschool children. 

Methods: We analyzed data from 21,212 children aged 19 to 35 months in the National 

Immunization Survey. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify maternal 

characteristics associated with completion of all recommended vaccinations in these children. 

Results: Factors most strongly associated with under-vaccination included having mothers who 

were black; had less than a high school education; were divorced, separated, or widowed; had 

multiple children; were eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants 

and Children (WIC) but not participating; or had incomes below 50% of the federal poverty level. 

Conclusion: Because most mothers play an important role in their children’s vaccination, it is 

important to address maternal concerns and barriers when developing public health interventions 

for promoting childhood vaccinations. Encouraging eligible women and their children to participate 

in the WIC program and providing support and encouragement for immunization to mothers with 

multiple children may improve early childhood vaccination coverage. 

 
A.38 

Melgar-Quiñonez, Hugo R., and Lucia L. Kaiser. “Relationship of Child-Feeding Practices to 

Overweight in Low-Income Mexican-American Preschool-Aged Children.” Journal of the 

American Dietetic Association, vol. 104, no. 7, 2004, pp. 1110–1119. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship of child-feeding practices 

and other factors to overweight in low-income Mexican-American preschool-aged children. Design:

Cross-sectional survey with anthropometric measurements of mothers and target children. Trained 

bilingual staff interviewed the parents to collect data on child-feeding strategies, food patterns, 

child’s health history, parental acculturation level, food insecurity, and other household 

characteristics. Subjects and setting: Complete data were available from 204 low-income Mexican 

American parents residing in California with at least one child aged 3 to 5 years. Outcomes 

measured: Risk of overweight was defined as body mass index (BMI) (measured as weight [in 

kilograms]/height [in meters]2) ≥85th percentile and overweight was defined as BMI ≥95th 

percentile. The Student t test, χ2 test, and logistic regression were used. Results: Three variables 

were positively related to risk of overweight: birth weight (odds ratio [OR], 2.31; 95% confidence 

interval [CI], 1.11 to 4.82), mother’s BMI ≥30 (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.11 to 3.79), and juice intake 

(OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.09 to 4.98). Being enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children was negatively related to risk of overweight (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.21 

to 0.75). Additional variables related to overweight were monthly income >$1,500 (OR, 2.33; 95% 

CI, 1.00 to 5.42) and child takes food from the refrigerator between meals (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13 

to 0.76).Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that biological and socioeconomic factors 

are more associated with overweight in Mexican-American preschool-aged children than most of the 

self-reported child-feeding strategies. 
A.39 

Mendoza, Jason A., Adam Drewnowski, Allen Cheadle, and Dimitri A. Christakis. “Dietary Energy 

Density Is Associated with Selected Predictors of Obesity in U.S Children.” Journal of Nutrition,

vol. 136, no. 5, 2006, pp. 1318–1322. 

ABSTRACT 

Increasing rates of childhood overweight have been linked to the rising energy density of the diet. 

We sought to provide temporal profiles of dietary energy density (DED) in a nationally 

representative sample of U.S. children and adolescents ≤ 19 y old and to describe associations 

between DED and predictors of overweight. We used a subset of data from the 1994–1996, 1998 

Continuing Survey of Food Intake for Individuals (CSFII) and a multivariate regression model to 

determine independent associations between DED and socioeconomic and demographic variables 

after controlling for covariates. In this cross-sectional data set, DED was positively associated with 

total energy intakes and varied with both age and gender. DED increased from birth, peaked at 7–8 

y of age, and then declined. Boys consumed more energy-dense diets than girls. Among children ≤ 4 

y old, higher DED was associated in the regression model with lower household incomes and with 

enrollment in the food stamp program. Among adolescents 12–19 y old, higher DED was associated 

with being African-American. In contrast, lower DED among children ≤ 11 y old was associated 

with being Asian or Hispanic and with total daily consumption of fluid milk. The quality of the diet 

for young children, as indexed by high DED, may be adversely affected by limited household 

economic resources. Although food insecurity and WIC enrollment were not associated with DED 

in this study sample, milk consumption in children ≤ 4 y old was associated with lower DED. 

 
A.40 

Oberholser, Cheryl A., and Cynthia R. Tuttle. “Assessment of Household Food Security Among 

Food Stamp Recipient Families in Maryland.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, no. 5, 

2004, pp. 790–796. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: We assessed the relationship between food security status and various 

sociodemographic characteristics among households that include children and that receive food 

stamps. Methods: A modified version of the U.S. Food Security Survey Module was implemented 

by telephone survey with Maryland food stamp recipients. Results: Of the 245 households, 66% 

experienced food insecurity. Food security status was associated with participation in the Special 

Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children, the summer food program, and a 

food bank. Food security status was not associated with the number of months households received 

food stamps. There was no difference between the food security status of households living in urban 

and rural counties. Conclusion: A gap exists between the food stamp support provided and some 

households’ nutritional and economic needs. 

 
A.41 

Oliveira, Victor, and Ram Chandran. “Children’s Consumption of WIC-Approved Foods.” Food 

Assistance and Nutrition Research Report No. 44. Washington, DC: USDA, ERS, February 

2005. 

ABSTRACT 

The WIC program offers supplemental foods to low-income women, infants, and children. This 

study compared consumption patterns of WIC children with those of three different comparison 

groups: eligible nonparticipating children living in non-WIC households, eligible nonparticipating 

children living in WIC households, and children living in households whose income is too high to be 

eligible for WIC. The study provides strong evidence that participation in the WIC program 

increases consumption of at least some types of WIC-approved foods. Although WIC-participating 

children consumed significantly more calories from WIC-approved foods than children in the two 

comparison groups of eligible nonparticipants, there was no significant difference in total calories 

consumed. The results suggest that WIC foods replace non-WIC foods in the diets of children 

participating in WIC rather than adding to their food consumption. This is the first study to examine 

in detail children’s consumption of WIC-approved foods by WIC status. Understanding WIC’s 

effect on the consumption of foods contained in the WIC food packages can help inform decisions 

on possible changes to the packages. 
A.42 

Ollberding, Nicholas J. “Food Label Use and its Relation to Dietary Intake Among U.S. Adults: 

Results from the 2005–2006 NHANES.” Ph. D. dissertation, Columbia University, 2009. 

ABSTRACT 

Recent rises in rates of obesity and diet-related disease are warranting the reexamination of public 

health approaches that may assist in combating these disorders. The federally mandated food label 

on packaged foods items is one approach designed for this purpose. This study examined frequency 

of food label use in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults by demographic, health, and 

weight characteristics and the association between food label use and nutrient intake. The crosssectional investigation was conducted using data collected during the 2005-2006 National Health 

and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that obtained information on food label use 

(nutrition facts panel, list of ingredients, serving size, health claims), nutrient intake (two 24-hour 

recalls), and participant characteristics on survey participants over 18 years of age. Findings were 

that 61.55% of participants reported using the nutrition facts panel, 51.58% list of ingredients, 

47.15% serving size, and 43.75% health claims. The percent of food label users was found to differ 

(p< .05) on the majority of characteristics examined. Multivariate logistic regression revealed an 

increased likelihood of using at least one aspect of the food label among participants who were 

older, female, possessed greater education, had a higher poverty income ratio, were non-Hispanic 

White, resided in the U.S. for >20 years if foreign born, lived alone, were married, participated in 

WIC, had a history of diabetes or hypertension, attempted weight loss in the past year, or saw a 

dietitian/nutritionist in the past year for weight loss. Increased use of the various components of the 

food label was associated with changes in nutrient intake for all nutrients examined. Despite 

explaining only a small proportion of variation in nutrient intake mean differences between label 

users and non-users may be of potential public health significance. Overall these findings suggest 

that there is much room for improvement in respect to label use among U.S. adults. Modification of 

the food label is likely to be needed to increase rates of use and impact dietary intake. However, 

food label use alone is not expected to be sufficient in modifying behavior ultimately leading to 

improved health outcomes. 

 
A.43 

Park, Kyong, Margaret Kersey, Joni Geppert, Mary Story, Diana Cutts, and John H. Himes. 

“Household Food Insecurity Is a Risk Factor for Iron-Deficiency Anaemia in a Multi-Ethnic, 

Low-Income Sample of Infants and Toddlers.” Public Health Nutrition, vol. 12, no. 11, 2009, pp. 

2120–2128. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: The present study examines the relationships of household food security status with Fe 

deficiency (ID) and Fe-deficiency anaemia (IDA) among children less than 3 years of age, and 

associated factors that contribute to ID and IDA. Design: Cross-sectional study and chart review. 

The US Food Security Survey Module was administered to adult caregivers as part of the Children’s 

Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Project (C-SNAP). Haematological data were obtained from medical 

records. Setting: A large metropolitan medical centre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Subjects: A 

multi-ethnic sample of 2853 low-income children aged, 36 months who received care at the medical 

centre. Results: Among the caregivers, 23.3% reported low household food security and 11.6% 

reported very low household food security (VLFS). After controlling for background factors, 

children from households with VLFS were almost twice as likely to have IDA than were children 

from households with high or marginal food security (OR=1.98, 95% CI 1.11, 3.53); the 

corresponding associations for ID were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The prevalence of 

IDA in early childhood is significantly larger in low-income infants and toddlers living in VLFS 

households. Asian, Hispanic and African-American children have elevated prevalences of ID and 

IDA. Breastfeeding may be associated with elevated ID and IDA, while participation in the Special 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may be protective for 

ID. 
A.44 

Park, Y. K., E. R. Meier, and W. O. Song. “Characteristics of Teenage Mothers and Predictors of 

Breastfeeding Initiation in the Michigan WIC Program in 1995. Women, Infants, and 

Children.” Journal of Human Lactation, vol. 19, no. 1, 2003, pp. 50–56. 

ABSTRACT 

Although breast milk is recommended as the optimal source of infant nutrition, breastfeeding 

initiation is below recommended levels, especially among teenage mothers. Breastfeeding initiation 

rates among Michigan (U.S.) teenage mothers (12-19 y) were compared by demographics and health 

behaviors. Multivariate analyses determined which factors were significant independent predictors of 

breastfeeding initiation among teenage mothers enrolled prenatally in the Michigan Special 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program in 1995. 

Significant predictors independently associated with breastfeeding initiation were race/ethnicity, 

education, marital status, postpartum anemia status, parity, prenatal trimester of WIC enrollment, 

and smoking. The strongest predictor of breastfeeding initiation differed for white mothers (positive 

predictor: education beyond high school [OR = 3.13]) and black mothers (negative predictor: 

multiparous [OR = 0.25]). Initiation rates for this population of teenage mothers fall below the 

national average for mothers of all ages and the US Healthy People 2010 goals. Research is needed 

concerning how breastfeeding support and education can be improved to reach the U.S. national 

health goals. 

 

 
A.45 

Racine, Elizabeth, Kevin Frick, Joanne Guthrie, and Donna Strobino. “Individual Net-Benefit 

Maximization: A Model for Understanding Breastfeeding Cessation among Low-Income 

Women.” Maternal & Child Health Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, 2009, pp. 241–249. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: We use economic theory of individual net benefit maximization to motivate a 

comprehensive look at 32 social, economic, and psychological disincentives that potentially influence 

breastfeeding cessation. Methods: The sample consists of 1,595 low-income families participating in 

the Healthy Steps for Young Children National Evaluation. Participants were recruited from 24 

pediatric sites across the United States. Infants were enrolled at birth and followed through age 30–

33 months. Survival analysis was used to assess the relation of social, economic and psychosocial 

factors with duration of breastfeeding. Results: Disincentives significantly associated with cessation 

in multivariate hazard analysis were WIC participation at 2–4 months (HR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.29, 

1.74), mother’s returning to work for 20–40 h per week (HR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.71); mother’s 

not attending a postpartum doctor’s visit (HR = 1.39; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.63); father’s not being in the 

home (HR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.21, 1.57); a smoker in the household (HR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.52); 

no receipt of breastfeeding instruction at the pediatric office (HR = 1.20; 95% CI:1.06, 1.37); the 

doctor’s not encouraging breastfeeding (HR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.39); and the mother 

experiencing depressive symptoms (HR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.33). Conclusions: The decision to 

stop breastfeeding is often complex. Research on breastfeeding cessation has been limited with 

regard to the social and economic issues that may influence the behavior of low-income women. 

The results support the need to develop interventions and policies to minimize disincentives 

associated with breastfeeding cessation. 
A.46 

Reichman, Nancy, and Julien Teitier. “Effects of Psychosocial Risk Factors and Prenatal 

Interventions on Birth Weight: Evidence from New Jersey’s HealthStart Program.” Perspectives 

on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 35, no. 3, 2003, pp. 130–137. 

ABSTRACT 

Context: Many states developed and implemented multifaceted Medicaid prenatal care programs in 

the late 1980s in response to expansions in Medicaid eligibility. Although these new programs were 

based on the presumed relationships between psychosocial risk (actors, early prenatal care, prenatal 

interventions and birth outcomes), research has not verified all of these linkages. Methods: Data 

were collected on 90,117 women who took plan in New Jersey's comprehensive prenatal care 

program, HealthStart, between 1988 and 1996. The impact of psychosocial risk factors and prenatal 

interventions on mean birth weight and the odds of low birth weight (less than 2, Soog) was 

assessed using ordinary least-squares regression and logistic regression, respectively. Results: After 

controls were introduced for social and demographic. psychosocial and behavioral factors, as well as 

the woman’s county of residence and the year of her baby’s birth, smoking, drinking, and using hard 

drugs (but not marijuana) during pregnancy were independently associated with reductions in mean 

birth weight (of 123 g, 299and 137g, respectively) and with increases in the odds of low birth weight 

(odds ratios, 1.4, 1.2and 1.7, respectively). However, according to the fully adjusted model, which 

also controlled for medical risk factors and prenatal services, the interventions designed to reduce 

those behaviors had no favorable effects on birth weight - In contrast, the receipt of services in the 

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was associated 

with an increase in mean birth weight of 229 (and of 489 among inadequately nourished women 

only), and with a reduction in the risk of low birth weight (odds ratio, 0.87). Conclusion: Referrals 

to WIC services should be a key feature of prenatal care programs for poor women. 

 

 
A.47 

Rivera, Ann C. “Impact and Process Evaluation of Prenatal WIC on Maternal and Infant 

Outcomes.” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2008. 

ABSTRACT 

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is among the 

most evaluated programs in the federal social safety net, but most of the research is hindered by 

insufficient attention to selection bias and to factors that determine who takes-up the program. Few 

studies have examined potential program effects beyond birth. No studies have investigated 

processes that might transmit the program’s effects. Study 1 investigates the effects of maternal 

participation in WIC prenatally on prenatal care, birthweight, gestational age, child health status, low 

weight-for-length, overweight, and middle-upper-arm-circumference through 24 months using the 

Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). This study compares treatment effects 

estimated using standard OLS regression and regression after matching and stratifying on propensity 

scores. Propensity scores substantially reduced selection bias in the two quartiles most likely to take 

up WIC. In these groups, prenatal WIC improved timing of initiation and adequacy of prenatal care, 

increased birthweight and gestational age, and reduced the likelihood of very preterm birth. 

Mediational analyses suggest that increased use of prenatal care transmits prenatal WIC’s effects on 

birthweight and gestational age. Study 2 investigates the effects of prenatal WIC participation on 

infant cognitive, motor, and socioemotional abilities through 24 months using the ECLS-B. 

Propensity-score-adjusted estimates indicate that prenatal WIC contributes to improved cognitive 

ability at 9 months of age in the quartile most likely to take up WIC. Mediational analyses suggest 

that higher birthweight and greater cognitive stimulation transmit prenatal WIC’s effects on 

cognitive ability. Study 3 features analysis of longitudinal qualitative data (i.e., interview transcripts 

and extensive field notes) and complementary survey data to examine the determinants of 

participation in WIC and Food Stamp Program (FSP) among a New York City sample of lowincome, immigrant, and ethnically diverse families with infants. Qualitative data uncovered more 

reasons for take-up of WIC than FSP, including the non-monetary benefits of WIC, suggesting 

meaningful differences in families’ views of these programs. Both survey and qualitative data provide 

evidence that WIC’s associations with health and direct benefit to children contribute to a greater 

willingness across ethnic and immigrant/native-born groups to use WIC versus FSP. 
A.48 

Rose, Donald, J. N. Bodor, and Mariana Chilton. “Has the WIC Incentive to Formula-Feed Led to 

an Increase in Overweight Children?” Journal of Nutrition, vol. 136, no. 4, 2006, pp. 1086–1090. 

ABSTRACT 

We explored the relationship between the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 

Infants, and Children (WIC) and overweight status in children, with a focus on WIC’s provision of 

infant formula, through secondary analyses and review of existing literature. Because of the 

complexity involved and the lack of previous research on the combined link between WIC, breastfeeding, and overweight status, we considered evidence for each of these relations separately. Using 

food-cost data from the WIC’s 1996 Participant and Program Characteristics Survey, we found that 

the state-level average for 1 y of program benefits for women who formula-fed was over twice the 

value of program benefits for those who breast-fed (BF). This difference in benefit levels, or 

formula incentive, was negatively associated with both the in-hospital and 6-mo BF rates instatelevel multiple regression models. Despite WIC’s efforts to promote BF, other large-scale studies 

have found a negative association of program participation with BF rates. An inverse association of 

BF on subsequent overweight in children also has been shown in a number of studies. Despite this 

accumulating evidence for the protective effect of BF, it has not been seen in African American or 

Latino populations. In sum, there is reason to be concerned that WIC’s incentive to formula-feed 

may have led to an increase in overweight children; yet there is too much uncertainty about the issue 

to conclude that this is so. Further research is needed to understand this relationship, as is the 

development of applied interventions to increase BF rates. 
A.49 

Ryan, Alan, and Wenjun Zhou. “Lower Breastfeeding Rates Persist Among the Special 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Participants, 1978–

2003.” Pediatrics, vol. 117, 2006, pp. 1136–1146. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: We set out to compare rates of breastfeeding between women who participated in the 

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) with those of 

non-WIC mothers from 1978 to 2003. Methods: The Ross Laboratories Mothers Survey is a 

national survey designed to determine patterns of milk feeding during infancy. Mothers were asked 

to recall the type of milk fed to their infant in the hospital and during each month of age. Rates of 

breastfeeding in the hospital and at 6 months of age were evaluated. Logistic regression analyses 

identified significant predictors of breastfeeding in 2003. Results: From 1978 through 2003, rates 

for the initiation of breastfeeding among WIC participants lagged behind those of non-WIC 

mothers by an average of 23.6 ± 4.4 percentage points. At 6 months of age, the gap between WIC 

participants and non-WIC mothers (mean: 16.3 ± 3.1 percentage points) steadily increased from 

1978 through 2003 and exceeded 20% by 1999. Demographic factors that were significant and 

positive predictors of breastfeeding initiation in 2003 included some college education, living in the 

western region of the United States, not participating in the WIC program, having an infant of 

normal birth weight, primarily, and not working outside the home. For mothers of infants 6 months 

of age, WIC status was the strongest determinant of breastfeeding: mothers who were not enrolled 

in the WIC program were more than twice as likely to breastfeed at 6 months of age than mothers 

who participated in the WIC program. Conclusions: Breastfeeding rates among WIC participants 

have lagged behind those of non-WIC mothers for the last 25 years. The Healthy People 2010 goals 

for breastfeeding will not be reached without intervention. Food package and programmatic changes 

are needed to make the incentives for breastfeeding greater for WIC participants. 

 
A.50 

Santoli, Jeanne, Natalie Huet, Philip Smith, Lawrence Barker, Lance Rodewald, Moira Inkelas, Lynn 

Olson, and Neal Halfon. “Insurance Status and Vaccination Coverage Among US Preschool 

Children.” Pediatrics, vol. 113, 2004, pp.1959–1964 

ABSTRACT 

Background: Insurance status has been shown to have an impact on children’s use of preventive 

and acute health services. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between 

insurance status and vaccination coverage among U.S. preschool children aged 19 to 35 months. 

Methods: We linked data from 2 national telephone surveys, the National Immunization Survey and 

the National Survey of Early Childhood Health, conducted during the first half of 2000. Children 

were considered up to date (UTD) when they had received at least 4 diphtheria-tetanus- acellular 

pertussis/diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines, 3 poliovirus vaccines, 1 MMR vaccine, 3 

Haemophilus influenza vaccines, and 3 hepatitis B vaccines at the time the interview was conducted. 

Results: Among the 735 children in our study sample, 72% were UTD. The vast majority (94%) 

reported some type of health insurance at the time of the survey. Children with private insurance 

were more likely to be UTD (80%) than those with public insurance (56%) or no insurance (64%). 

In a multivariate analysis that controlled for child’s race/ethnicity; household income; maternal 

age/marital status/educational level; location of usual care; and Special Supplemental Nutrition 

Program for Women, Infants, and Children participation, insurance was no longer an independent 

predictor of vaccination. Conclusions: The disparity in vaccination coverage among publicly, 

privately, and uninsured children is dramatic, underscoring its importance as a marker for 

underimmunization, despite the multivariate findings. The Vaccines for Children Program, a 

partnership between public health and vaccination providers who serve uninsured children and 

those enrolled in Medicaid, is well suited to target and improve vaccination coverage among these 

vulnerable children. 
A.51 

Schneider, J. M., M. L. Fujii, C. L. Lamp, B. Lönnerdal, K. G. Dewey, and S. Zidenberg-Cherr. “The 

Use of Multiple Logistic Regression to Identify Risk Factors Associated with Anemia and Iron 

Deficiency in a Convenience Sample of 12-36-Mo-Old Children from Low-Income Families.” 

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 87, no. 3, 2008, pp. 614–620. 

ABSTRACT 

Background: The prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) anemia among preschool-age children remains 

relatively high in some areas across the United States. Determination of risk factors associated with 

ID is needed to allow children with identifiable risk factors to receive appropriate education, testing, 

and follow-up. Objective: We aimed to evaluate risk factors associated with anemia and ID in a 

sample of children participating in or applying for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Design: The study was a cross-sectional study of a 

convenience sample of 12–36-mo-old children recruited from WIC clinics in 2 California counties (n 

= 498). Results: Current WIC participation by the child and a greater rate of weight gain were 

negatively associated, and current maternal pregnancy was positively associated with anemia 

(hemoglobin < 110 g/L at 12–<24 mo or < 111 g/L at 24–36 mo) after control for age, sex, and 

ethnicity. Maternal WIC participation during pregnancy, child age, and the intake of ≥125 mL 

orange or tomato juice/d were negatively associated, and being male and living in an urban location 

were positively associated with ID (≥2 of the following abnormal values: ferritin ≤ 8.7 μg/L, 

transferrin receptors ≥ 8.4 μg/mL, and transferrin saturation ≤ 13.2%). Conclusions: Current WIC 

participation by the child and maternal WIC participation during pregnancy were negatively 

associated with anemia and ID, respectively. It is anticipated that the risk factors identified in this 

study will be included in the development of an educational intervention focused on reducing the 

risk factors for ID and ID anemia in young children. 
A.52 

Siega-Riz, A. M., S. Kranz, D. Blanchette, P. S. Haines, D. K. Guilkey, and B. M. Popkin. “The 

Effect of Participation in the WIC Program on Preschoolers’ Diets.” Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 

144, no. 2, 2004, pp. 229–234. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: To evaluate nutrient, food intake, and snacking behavior by participation in the WIC 

(Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) program. Study 

design: Secondary data analysis of a nationally representative cross-sectional survey conducted by 

USDA in 1994 to 1996 and 1998. Methods: Statistical analysis was performed correcting for sample 

design effects and weighting for children in two income groups (<130%, n = 1772 and 130% to 

185% of poverty, n = 689). Results: Among WIC participants, the prevalence of snacking was 

significantly lower (68%) compared with nonparticipants (72%) (v2 = 5.9, P = .01). For those 

<130% of poverty, WIC had a beneficial effect on the intake of fat, carbohydrates, added sugar, and 

fruit from the total diet as well as on added sugar from snacks. These were independent of food 

stamp participation. For those with higher incomes, the beneficial effects were limited to added 

sugar, iron density, and fruit intake for the total diet. A similar significant effect of decreased added 

sugar intake from snacks was also seen. Conclusions: Our results are in line with previous research 

showing beneficial effects of WIC participation among preschoolers, primarily for nutrients targeted 

by the program. This study shows that the effect can reach beyond those targeted nutrients. 
A.53 

Sparks, P. J. “Childhood Morbidities among Income- and Categorically-Eligible WIC Program 

Participants and Non-Participants.” Journal of Children and Poverty, vol. 16, no. 1, 2010, pp. 47–66. 

ABSTRACT 

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is the largest 

supplemental food assistance program in the United States. WIC benefits include food and infant 

formula, nutrition counseling, health screenings, and health-care referrals to low-income, 

nutritionally at-risk pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. This 

research explored the associations between childhood morbidities among income- and categoricallyeligible WIC participant and non-participant groups in a diverse, nationally representative sample of 

children. Results indicate significant differences in the maternal sociodemographic profiles of eligible 

child WIC participants and non-participants. After propensity score-matching methods were used to 

create more appropriate comparison groups among child WIC participants and non-participants, 

complete covariate balance was obtained for all sociodemographic characteristics. Further, no 

significant differences in child asthma, respiratory illness, severe gastrointestinal illness, or ear 

infection diagnosis, or with mothers rating their health as poor, were noted between child WIC 

participants and non-participants, once the matched pairs were compared. Government regulators 

formulating future policies around WIC would benefit from understanding the characteristics of 

eligible non-participants in order to offer appropriate food, health, and educational assistance 

beneficial to child health. 

 
A.54 

Ver Ploeg, Michele, Lisa Mancino, BiingHwan Lin, and Joanne Guthrie. “US Food Assistance 

Programs and Trends in Children’s Weight.” International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, vol. 3, no. 1, 

2008, pp. 22–30. 

ABSTRACT 

Objectives: High rates of overweight and obesity among low-income children have led some to 

question whether participation in U.S. domestic food assistance programs contributes to this health 

problem. We use multiple years of data to examine trends in children’s body weight and 

participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP) or Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Specifically, we assess whether a consistent relationship 

between program participation and body weight exists over time. Methods: Data from multiple 

waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) are used to examine 

the relationship between children’s body weight and food assistance programs between 1976 and 

2002. Linear regression models are used to estimate BMI and logit models are used to predict the 

probabilities of at-risk of overweight and overweight. Food assistance program participants (either 

FSP or WIC participants depending on age) are compared with income eligible non-participants and 

higher income children. Results: Results show no systematic relationship over time between FSP 

participation and weight status for school-aged children (age 5-17). For children aged 2-4, no 

differences in weight status between WIC participants and eligible nonparticipants were found. 

However, recent data show some differences between WIC participants and higher income children. 

Conclusions: Our analysis does not find evidence of a consistent relationship between childhood 

obesity and participation in the FSP or WIC programs. 
A.55 

Ver Ploeg, Michele. “Do Benefits of U.S. Food Assistance Programs for Children Spillover to Older 

Children in the Same Household?” Journal of Family and Economic Issues, vol. 30, no. 4, 2009, pp. 

412–427. 

ABSTRACT 

The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program targets low-income individuals in nutritionally 

vulnerable groups in the U.S. The food benefits individuals receive could be shared with other 

family members or may free a portion of the family budget. National Health and Nutrition 

Examination Survey data are used to examine whether children who are age-ineligible for WIC (age 

5-17), that live in WIC-participating families have healthier diets than similar children in 

nonparticipating families. Results show children in WIC-participating families score higher on the 

Healthy Eating Index than children in non participating families. This association is stronger for 

children in families with two or more WIC participants compared with children living with only one 

or no WIC participants. 
A.56 

Weston, Andrea L., and Kyle S. Enger. “Factors Associated with Hepatitis A Vaccination Receipt in 

One-Year-Olds in the State of Michigan.” Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, vol. 2010, no. 1, 

2010. 

ABSTRACT 

The objectives of this study were to determine factors associated with hepatitis A vaccination and to 

assess overall hepatitis A vaccination coverage levels among one-year-olds in Michigan. The study 

population was the first hepatitis A vaccination-eligible birth cohort (n = 134,226) enrolled in the 

Michigan Care Improvement Registry (MCIR) after 2006 recommendations were made to routinely 

vaccinate all one-year-olds. All children whose first birthday occurred on or between May 1, 2006, 

and April 31, 2007, were included in the study population. Racial/ethnic minorities had increased 

odds of receiving the hepatitis A vaccination in Michigan, and Medicaid and WIC status modified 

this relationship. Fully understanding these relationships will be useful in targeting vaccination 

outreach and education programs. 
A.57 

Wojcicki, Janet M., Roberto Gugig, Suganya Kathiravan, Kate Holbrook, and Melvin B. Heyman. 

“Maternal Knowledge of Infant Feeding Guidelines and Label Reading Behaviours in a 

Population of New Mothers in San Francisco, California.” Maternal and Child Nutrition, vol. 5, 

no. 3, 2009, pp. 223–233. 

ABSTRACT 

The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between maternal nutrition knowledge 

and maternal socio-demographics, including participation in the Special Supplemental Women, 

Infants and Children’s (WIC) Program. A cross-sectional study of new mothers at two San 

Francisco hospitals was conducted using some of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines in 

a structured questionnaire to assess maternal nutritional knowledge. Maternal nutritional attitudes 

towards product nutrient labels were also assessed in a questionnaire format. Logistic regression 

models were used to evaluate the odds of having high maternal nutrition knowledge and of 

infrequently reading nutrition labels. In multivariate logistic regression models, higher maternal 

nutrition knowledge (defined as answering all four nutrition questions correctly) was associated with 

higher income levels defined as $25,000/year, odds ratio (OR) 10.03 95% confidence interval (CI) 

(1.51-66.74), and in linear models, higher nutritional knowledge was associated with having more 

children (P<0.01), a higher income (P<0.01) and not being a WIC participant (P<0.01). Mothers 

with higher incomes were also more likely to read product nutritional labels OR 4.24, 95% CI (1.24-

14.51), compared with mothers with lower incomes as were mothers with higher education levels 

OR 3.32, 95% CI (1.28-8.63). In San Francisco, lower income mothers are at greatest risk for low 

maternal nutrition knowledge and not reading product nutritional labels. Higher household income 

was independently associated with increased maternal nutrition knowledge and likelihood of reading 

nutritional labels. More comprehensive interventions need to target low-income mothers including 

current WIC participants to help close the nutritional advantages gap conferred by income and 

education. 
A.58 

Wojcicki, Janet M., Roberto Gugig, Cam Tran, Suganya Kathiravan, Katherine Holbrook, and 

Melvin B. Heyman. “Early Exclusive Breastfeeding and Maternal Attitudes Towards Infant 

Feeding in a Population of New Mothers in San Francisco, California.” Breastfeeding Medicine, vol. 

5, no. 1, 2010, pp. 9–15. 

ABSTRACT 

Background: Positive parental attitudes towards infant feeding are an important component in 

child nutritional health. Previous studies have found that participants in the Special Supplemental 

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program have lower breastfeeding rates and attitudes that do 

not contribute towards healthy infant feeding in spite of breastfeeding and nutrition education 

programs targeting WIC participants. The objective of this study was to assess the frequency of 

exclusive breastfeeding in the early postpartum period and maternal attitudes towards breastfeeding 

in a population of mothers at two San Francisco hospitals and in relation to WIC participation 

status. Methods: We interviewed women who had recently delivered a healthy newborn using a 

structured interview. Results: A high percentage (79.8%) of our sample was exclusively 

breastfeeding at 1-4 days postpartum. We did not find any significant differences in rates of formula 

or mixed feeding by WIC participant status. Independent risk factors for mixed or formula feeding 

at 1-3 days postpartum included Asian/Pacific Islander ethnicity (odds ratio [OR] 2.90, 95% 

confidence interval [CI]1.17-7.19). Being a college graduate was associated with a decreased risk of 

formula/mixed feeding (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.10-0.79). We also found that thinking breastfeeding was 

physically painful and uncomfortable was independently associated with not breastfeeding (OR 1.41, 

95% CI 1.06-1.89). Conclusions: Future studies should be conducted with Asian-Americans and 

Pacific Islanders to better understand the lower rates of exclusive breastfeeding in this population 

and should address negative attitudes towards breastfeeding such as the idea that breastfeeding is 

painful or uncomfortable. 
A.59 

Yunzal-Butler, Cristina, Ted Joyce, and Andrew D. Racine. “Maternal Smoking and the Timing of 

WIC Enrollment.” Maternal & Child Health Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, 2010, pp. 318–331. 

ABSTRACT 

Objective: To investigate the association between the timing of enrollment in the Special 

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and smoking among 

prenatal WIC participants. Methods: We use WIC data from eight states participating in the 

Pregnancy Nutrition Surveillance System (PNSS). We adjust the association between the timing of 

WIC participation and smoking behavior with a rich set of maternal characteristics. Results:

Women who enroll in WIC in the first trimester of pregnancy are 2.7% points more likely to be 

smoking at intake than women who enroll in the third trimester. Among participants who smoked 

before pregnancy and at prenatal WIC enrollment, those who enrolled in the first trimester are 4.5% 

points more likely to quit smoking 3 months before delivery and 3.4% points more likely to quit by 

postpartum registration, compared with women who do not enroll in WIC until the third trimester. 

However, among pregravid smokers who report quitting by the first prenatal WIC visit, firsttrimester enrollment is associated with a 2% point increase in relapse by postpartum registration. 

These results differ by race/ethnicity; white women who enroll early are 3.6% points more likely to 

relapse, while black women are 2.5% points less likely to relapse. Conclusions: Early WIC 

enrollment is associated with higher quit rates, although changes are modest when compared to the 

results from smoking cessation interventions for pregnant women. Given the prevalence of prenatal 

smoking among WIC participants, efforts to intensify WIC’s role in smoking cessation through 

more frequent, and more focused counseling should be encouraged. 

 
A.60 

Ziol-Guest, K. M., and D. C. Hernandez. “First- and Second-Trimester WIC Participation Is 

Associated with Lower Rates of Breastfeeding and Early Introduction of Cow’s Milk During 

Infancy.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 110, no. 5, 2010, pp. 702–709. 

ABSTRACT 

Background: Existing literature suggests prenatal participation in the Special Supplemental 

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may reduce breastfeeding among lowincome mothers. However, little is known about whether the timing of WIC entrance during 

pregnancy influences infant feeding decisions. Objective: This study assesses the association 

between the timing of prenatal participation in WIC and various infant feeding practices, including 

breastfeeding initiation, breastfeeding for at least 4 months, exclusive breast feeding, formula 

feeding, and early introduction of cow’s milk and solid food. Design: Cross-sectional survey 

matching of birth certificate data to mothers’ interviews 9 months after the child’s birth. Mothers 

provided information on participation in the WIC program, infant feeding practices, and 

sociodemographic characteristics. Subjects: A nationally representative sample of 4,450 births in 

2001 from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort. Analyses Multivariate logistic 

regression techniques (using STATA 9.0 SE, Stata Company, College Station, TX) estimated the 

relationship between the timing of prenatal WIC participation and infant feeding practices. Results:

Entry into the WIC program during the first or second trimester of pregnancy is associated with 

reduced likelihood of initiation of breastfeeding and early cow’s milk introduction; and entry during 

the first trimester is associated with reduced duration of breastfeeding. WIC participation at any 

trimester is positively related to formula feeding. Conclusions: Prenatal WIC participation is 

associated with a greater likelihood of providing babies infant formula rather than breast milk after 

birth. Findings also indicate that there are critical prenatal periods for educating women about the 

health risks of early cow’s milk introduction. Given the health implications of feeding infants cow’s 

milk too early, WIC may be successful in educating women on the health risks of introducing 

complementary foods early, even if direct counseling on cow’s milk is not provided.