Center for Public Health and Health Policy, University of Connecticut, East Hartford, CT, USA.
Am J Prev Med. 2012 Oct;43(4):419-22. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.06.009.
Literature on food environments is expanding rapidly, yet a gap exists regarding the role of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on healthy food availability. In October 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revised the WIC food package, requiring certified stores to stock fresh produce, whole grains, and lower-fat milk.
The goal of this study is to compare availability of foods in stores that are versus those that are not WIC-certified before and after the policy change.
Store inventories were collected in 45 corner stores in Hartford CT with four inventories each (180 total inventories) from January 2009 to January 2010. Data on availability and variety of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains, and lower-fat milk were recorded. Analyses were completed in 2012 using Fisher's exact test, chi-square, and t-tests for descriptive analyses and multilevel models to measure food availability longitudinally (significance at p<0.05).
Controlling for covariates, WIC-certified vendors carried more varieties of fresh fruit (p<0.01); a greater proportion of lower-fat milk (p<0.01); and had greater availability of whole grain bread (p<0.01) and brown rice (p<0.05) than vendors without WIC authorization after the policy change. Conversely, for all outcomes, stores without WIC authorization did not significantly increase healthy food availability.
The 2009 WIC revisions increased availability of healthy foods among WIC-certified vendors compared to those without WIC authorization in Hartford CT. For many residents without a car, these changes can create a convenient shopping location for healthy foods when a larger supermarket is not nearby.
关于食品环境的文献正在迅速增加，但关于美国农业部特殊补充营养计划对妇女、婴儿和儿童（WIC）对健康食品供应的作用仍存在差距。2009 年 10 月，美国农业部修订了 WIC 食品套餐，要求认证商店储备新鲜农产品、全谷物和低脂牛奶。
本研究的目的是比较政策变更前后有和没有 WIC 认证的商店中食品的供应情况。
2009 年 1 月至 2010 年 1 月，在康涅狄格州哈特福德市的 45 家街角商店中，每个商店收集了四次库存（总共 180 次库存）。记录新鲜水果、新鲜蔬菜、全谷物和低脂牛奶的供应和品种数据。使用 Fisher 精确检验、卡方检验和 t 检验进行描述性分析，并使用多层模型进行纵向测量食品供应（p<0.05 为显著）。
在控制协变量的情况下，WIC 认证供应商携带的新鲜水果品种更多（p<0.01）；低脂牛奶的比例更高（p<0.01）；全麦面包（p<0.01）和糙米（p<0.05）的供应也更多，而政策变更后没有 WIC 授权的供应商则没有显著增加健康食品的供应。
与没有 WIC 授权的供应商相比，2009 年 WIC 修订增加了哈特福德 CT 地区 WIC 认证供应商提供健康食品的数量。对于许多没有汽车的居民来说，当附近没有大型超市时，这些变化可以为他们提供一个方便购买健康食品的购物地点。
