The Impact of <scp>WIC</scp> on Infant Immunizations and Health Care Utilization

Bersak, Tim; Sonchak, Lyudmyla

doi:10.1111/1475-6773.12810

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…48 Access to SNAP in utero and in early childhood also reduces the incidence of metabolic syndrome in adulthood and, for women, increases economic self-sufficiency and reports of being in good health in adulthood. 50 Prenatal or early childhood participation in WIC is associated with improved dietary intake and quality, 51,52 weight outcomes, 53 immunization rates, 54,55 cognitive development and school performance, 56 and birth outcomes (including a lower risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and perinatal death). 57,58 WIC is cost-saving, too, investing $1 in prenatal WIC services saves about $2.48 in medical, educational, and productivity costs over a newborn's lifetime by preventing preterm birth, based on simulations of WIC participation in California.…”

Section: T a G G E D H 1 Federal Nutrition Programs That Improve Chilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Insecurity and Health: Practices and Policies to Address Food Insecurity among Children

Hartline‐Grafton¹,

Hassink²

2021

Academic Pediatrics

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T A G G E D P PEDIATRICIANS CAN AND should play a critical role in addressing food insecurity, a health-related social need with harmful impacts on child health, development, and well-being. 1 Food insecurity is a term defined by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that indicates that the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for a household. 2 A variety of strategies exist for pediatricians to address food insecurity among children in the United States, including screening for food insecurity in health care settings, connecting children and their families to the benefits in the federal nutrition programs, and advocating for policies to alleviate food insecurity and its root causes. 1 This commentary will briefly describe the prevalence of and risk factors for food insecurity among children, consequences of food insecurity for children, federal nutrition programs that improve household food security and child health, and actions pediatricians can take in their practice and through advocacy to meaningfully address food insecurity among children.

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Section: T a G G E D H 1 Federal Nutrition Programs That Improve Chilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Insecurity and Health: Practices and Policies to Address Food Insecurity among Children

Hartline‐Grafton¹,

Hassink²

2021

Academic Pediatrics

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“…Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn (2004) find positive effects on the use of well-child visits among low-income, single mothers. Bersak and Sonchak (2018) find that prenatal WIC participation increases the number of well-child visits. They use a maternal fixed-effects design and focus on infants within the first year of life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Does Prenatal WIC Participation Improve Child Outcomes?

Chorniy¹,

Currie²,

Sonchak³

2020

American Journal of Health Economics

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A large body of literature documents positive effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on birth outcomes, and separately connects health at birth and future outcomes. But little research investigates the link between prenatal WIC participation and childhood outcomes. We explore this question using a unique data set from South Carolina that links administrative birth, Medicaid, and education records. We find that relative to their siblings, prenatal WIC participants have a lower incidence of ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and other common childhood mental health conditions and a lower incidence of grade repetition. These findings demonstrate that a "WIC start" results in persistent improvements in child outcomes across a range of domains.

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“…The WIC program is widely considered to be one of the most successful nutrition intervention policies [ 4 , 9 ]. Research has shown that participation in WIC is associated with improvements in infant and child health outcomes [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], nutrition intake and diet-related outcomes [ 15 , 16 ], and access to health care [ 17 , 18 ]. In 2019, the average number of women, infants, and children receiving WIC benefits each month was approximately 6.4 million, with an average monthly food package per person of $40.90 [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of US Administrative Agency Variations

Landry

Phan

McGuirt

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The food retail environment has been directly linked to disparities in dietary behaviors and may in part explain racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy-related deaths. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, is associated with improved healthy food and beverage access due to its requirement for minimum stock of healthy foods and beverages in WIC-eligible stores. The selection and authorization criteria used to authorize WIC vendors varies widely from state to state with little known about the specific variations. This paper reviews and summarizes the differences across 16 of these criteria enacted by 89 WIC administrative agencies: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, five US Territories, and 33 Indian Tribal Organizations. Vendor selection and authorization criteria varied across WIC agencies without any consistent pattern. The wide variations in criteria and policies raise questions about the rational for inconsistency. Some of these variations, in combination, may result in reduced access to WIC-approved foods and beverages by WIC participants. For example, minimum square footage and/or number of cash register criteria may limit vendors to larger retail operations that are not typically located in high-risk, under-resourced communities where WIC vendors are most needed. Results highlight an opportunity to convene WIC stakeholders to review variations, their rationale, and implications thereof especially as this process could result in improved policies to ensure and improve healthy food and beverage access by WIC participants. More work remains to better understand the value of state WIC vendor authorization authority, particularly in states that have provided stronger monitoring requirements. This work might also examine if and how streamlining WIC vendor criteria (or at least certain components of them) across regional areas or across the country could provide an opportunity to advance interstate commerce and promote an equitable supply of food across the food system, while ensuring the protection for local, community-oriented WIC vendors.

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The Impact of WIC on Infant Immunizations and Health Care Utilization

Abstract: These findings suggest that WIC may increase health care costs in some dimensions while reducing it in others, and more work is needed to fully evaluate the impact of the program on future expenditures.

Cited by 18 publications

References 30 publications

Food Insecurity and Health: Practices and Policies to Address Food Insecurity among Children

Food Insecurity and Health: Practices and Policies to Address Food Insecurity among Children

Does Prenatal WIC Participation Improve Child Outcomes?

USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of US Administrative Agency Variations

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