NUR 4244 – Deliverable 3 – Public Health Policy Executive Summary

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or the WIC Program, serves and protects the health of low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. The program provides nutritious foods, information on healthy eating, including breastfeeding promotion and support, as well as referrals to health care. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which is a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is responsible for administering the WIC program at the national and regional levels (“About WIC,” 2013).

The WIC Program plays an important role in improving birth outcomes as well as savings in health care costs. Women’s participation in WIC has resulted in longer pregnancies, fewer premature births, lower incidences of low birth rates, fewer infant deaths, and savings in health care costs. For example, fewer low-birth-weight infants were born to mothers participating in MN WIC, thus lowering the cost and length of time of their infant’s hospital stay (“About WIC- How WIC Helps,” 2013).

Infant feeding practices have also improved with WIC breastfeeding support. The goal of this program is to equip WIC mothers with the information, resources, and support they need to successfully breastfeed. The USDA is responsible for compiling and publishing annual breastfeeding performance measurements. This data is used to monitor breastfeeding trends and identify the performance of WIS state and local agencies. WIC promotes improved infant feeding practices with the Breastfeeding Performance Bonus Award (“WIC Breastfeeding Data,” 2020).

NUR 4244 – Deliverable 3 – Public Health Policy Executive Summary

Another important aspect of the WIC Program is assisting with immunizations for children. The WIC program’s role is to identify a child’s need for immunizations and provide information and resources to the parents. The WIC Program promotes vaccination of low-income children at risk for under-vaccination. Strategies to assist with participation include monthly vouchers, outreach and tracking, and parental incentives. It has been proven that children in WIC exposed to an immunization intervention have higher coverage than children who never participated (Thomas et al., 2016).

References

About WIC. (2013). Retrieved October 16, 2020, from https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/about-wic

About WIC- How WIC Helps. (2013). Retrieved October 16, 2020, from https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/about-wic-how-wic-helps

Thomas, T. N., Kolasa, M. S., Zhang, F., & Shefer, A. M. (2014). Assessing immunization interventions in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. American journal of preventive medicine, 47(5), 624–628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.06.017