Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Aug 1;188(8):1493-1502. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwz098.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutritional support for pregnant and postpartum women and young children. The typical food package provided to recipient families was revised in October 2009 to include more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk. Little is known about whether these revisions improved nutrition among women during this critical period of the life course. We conducted a quasiexperimental difference-in-differences analysis, comparing WIC recipients ("treatment" group) before and after the WIC policy change, while accounting for temporal trends among nonrecipients ("control" group). We examined nutritional outcomes among a cohort of 1,454 women recruited during pregnancy in 2006-2011 in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, Tennessee. We found improvements in several measures of dietary quality and nutrient intake during pregnancy, although these did not persist into the postpartum period. Results were robust to numerous sensitivity analyses. At a time when federal WIC funding is threatened, this study provides some of the first evidence of the benefits of recent WIC revisions among low-income women.
妇女、婴儿和儿童特别补充营养计划（WIC）为孕妇和产后妇女以及幼儿提供营养支持。2009 年 10 月，对向接受家庭提供的典型食品包进行了修订，纳入了更多的全谷物、水果、蔬菜和低脂牛奶。对于这些修订是否在此生命历程的关键时期改善了妇女的营养状况，知之甚少。我们进行了一项准实验性差异中的差异分析，比较了 WIC 政策变化前后的 WIC 接受者（“治疗”组），同时考虑了非接受者（“对照”组）的时间趋势。我们调查了 2006 年至 2011 年期间在田纳西州孟菲斯及其周边谢尔比县怀孕的 1454 名妇女的队列的营养结果。我们发现，妊娠期间几种饮食质量和营养素摄入量的衡量标准有所改善，尽管这些改善在产后阶段并未持续。结果在多次敏感性分析中是稳健的。在联邦 WIC 资金受到威胁的时候，这项研究提供了有关最近 WIC 修订对低收入妇女的益处的首批证据之一。
