Using Point-of-Purchase Data To Evaluate Local WIC Nutrition Education Interventions: Feasibility Study

The effect of nutrition education—an important component of many Federal Food Assistance programs—on participants’ food consumption behavior is difficult to ascertain. This study finds that combining point-of-purchase data with State data on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a feasible method to assess behavioral changes in WIC participants. The major obstacle to using these data as a practical method of evaluating WIC participant food-purchasing behaviors is the recruitment of enough stores to allow for a representative sample ofWIC participants to be included. The study found that nutrition education intervention directed at encouraging the purchase of 1-percent and skim milk, as well as low-fat cheese, did not significantly influence purchasing patterns among WIC participants