WIC Participation and Breastfeeding after the 2009 WIC Revision: A Propensity Score Approach

Kelin Li, Ming Wen, Megan Reynolds and Qi Zhang
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Kelin Li: Department of Sociology, California State University-Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA 90747, USA
Ming Wen: Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Megan Reynolds: Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Qi Zhang: School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-12

Abstract: In this study, we examined the association between participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and breastfeeding outcomes before and after the 2009 revisions. Four-thousand-three-hundred-and-eight WIC-eligible children younger than 60 months were included from the 2005–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We compared two birth cohorts with regard to their associations between WIC participation and being ever-breastfed and breastfed at 6 months. We estimated the average effect of the treatment for the treated to assess the causal effect of WIC participation on breastfeeding based on propensity score matching. The results showed that WIC-eligible participating children born between 2000 and 2008 were significantly less likely than WIC-eligible nonparticipating children to ever receive breastfeeding ( p < 0.05) or to be breastfed at 6 months ( p < 0.05). Among children born between 2009 and 2014, WIC-eligible participating children were no longer less likely to ever receive breastfeeding compared to WIC-eligible nonparticipating children; the gap remained in breastfeeding at 6-months ( p < 0.05). The disparities in prevalence of ever breastfed between WIC-eligible participants and nonparticipants have been eliminated since the 2009 WIC revision. More efforts are needed to improve breastfeeding persistence among WIC-participating mother–infant dyads.

Keywords: women, infants, and children (WIC); breastfeeding; NHANES; propensity score (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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