The impact of new women infant children (WIC) package on whole grain consumption of participating children in metro-Atlanta, Georgia

Includes bibliographical referencesOPurpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the revised Women Infant and Children (WIC) programme on whole grain consumption among WIC participating children. In addition, this study aims to investigate how knowledge on whole grain consumption and/or perceptions on cost of whole grain contribute to consumption. Background: The WIC programme is a supplementary nutrition programme for women, infants and children which seeks to promote the health of women who are pregnant, postpartium and lactating and children up to the age of 5 years. The WIC programme is aimed at low-income women and children facing nutritional risk. This nutritional risk is classified by a number of factors that include anaemia, underweight, overweight, history of pregnancy complication or poor pregnancy outcomes. Women and children facing nutritional risk are provided with services that include supplementary foods, nutrition and education counselling, screening and referral to other health, welfare and social services. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of the Phase II Emory WIC study that investigated the impact of the new WIC programme on fruit and vegetable consumption among participating women. In addition to this, the primary study also investigated the consumption of whole grain foods. The study population consisted of 77 women and their children that attended routine visits in two Metro-Atlanta WIC clinics. In order to meet the aims of this secondary analysis, this study will firstly undertake a univariate analysis and thereafter simple bivariate analysis intended to determine any associations between exposure/risk factors (i.e. old and new WIC Emory Voucher package) and response variables. In addition to the above analysis, paired-tests will be conducted to determine if there is any statistical significant increase in whole grain consumption between; (a.) baseline and week 1 and (b.) baseline and 4 week. Finally, in order to account for possible confounding not taken into consideration by the aforementioned analysis, this study will use General Estimating Equation (GEE) approach to model the change in whole grain consumption over time (from baseline to 4 weeks). It is anticipated that the above methodology will help answer the objectives of this research. Conclusion: It is hoped that the results of the study will highlight possible socio-economic factors that may lead to greater consumption of whole grain foods and provide recommendations on how to best improve the WIC programme with regard to Whole Grain Foods (WGFs) among participating children