Food and Beverage Intake From 12 to 23 Months by WIC Status

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In 2009, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) revised its food packages to align with updated nutrition science. Understanding how these revisions may impact current consumption patterns could be important.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Dietary Intake of U.S. Children Participating in WIC

“…The results reported here represent population mean dietary intake on a given day, and therefore are not an estimation of long-term usual intake [33]. However, reporting population dietary intake from the first day of NHANES recall data promotes comparability between our findings and other studies using NHANES data to evaluate WIC participant dietary intake [7,8]. NHANES dietary data and associated dietary sample weights are commonly used to describe food and nutrient intakes on a given day, and they are also useful for descriptive and analytical epidemiologic purposes [14].…”

“…The WIC program has significant potential to increase access to nutritious foods among women and children living in low-income households in the U.S., and reduce associated diet-related disparities. Despite the fact that many studies published within the past year have assessed diet quality of WIC participants using nationally representative data [3,4,5,6,7,8], none have specifically addressed racial/ethnic disparities in dietary intake of children participating in WIC. Our findings highlight differences in nutrient status of WIC-participating children across racial/ethnic groups, and suggest that Hispanic children have diets with better nutrient distribution and lower dietary energy density, while non-Hispanic Black children have diets with poorer nutrient intake, compared to non-Hispanic White children.…”

“…The first recall is collected in-person at the mobile examination center, and the second is collected via phone 3–10 days later [14]. We used the first day of diet recall to promote comparability between our results and other studies in the literature that used NHANES data to assess dietary intake of children participating in WIC [7,8]. Results based on a single 24-hour recall are sufficient to estimate population means because the effects of random errors associated with dietary recall, including day-to-day variability, are generally assumed to cancel out if days of the week are evenly represented [14].…”

“…Approximately half of all infants in the U.S., and one quarter of all children less than five years of age, participate in WIC [1]. Several studies published within the past year have used nationally representative data to assess diet quality of children participating in WIC [3,4,5,6,7,8], but differences by race/ethnicity remain unknown.…”

Associations between Governmental Policies to Improve the Nutritional Quality of Supermarket Purchases and Individual, Retailer, and Community Health Outcomes: An Integrative Review

“…Forty-four studies assessed the association between the 2009 WIC food package revisions and availability of foods and beverages in supermarkets; purchases, redemptions, or dietary intake among WIC participants; obesity in early childhood; perinatal and birth outcomes; or outcomes related to breastfeeding [ 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 , 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 ]. There is consistent evidence of an association between the WIC food package revisions and improvements in household food purchases and dietary intake among both adults and children [ 111 , 114 , 115 , 116 ...…”