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WIC Nutrition Education and Food Package Study (NEFPI)
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Impact Brief

Overview of the NEFPI Study
The WIC Nutrition Education and Food Package Impact (NEFPI) Study was conducted from 2008-2010 and was designed to examine the impact of (1) WIC nutrition education and (2) the new WIC food package on WIC participant behavior change. Identical survey methodology was used with random samples of WIC participants at three point in time: (1) six months before the changes to the food package and prior to any education regarding the changes (Time 1, March 2009), (2) after education but immediately before the change to the new food package (Time 2, September 2009) and (3) six months after the change to the new food package (Time 3, March 2010).

NEFPI was a naturalistic study based on pre-post cross-sectional comparisons of survey results. Phone surveys were conducted in English or Spanish with ~ 3000 California WIC participants at each time point. Field Research Corporation conducted the surveys, and each survey achieved cooperation rates over 88% and response rates above 45%.

Results from the research strongly support the positive impact of WIC nutrition education on participant behavior change, with participants consuming more fruit, whole grain foods and lower fat milk after receiving WIC-based education (Ritchie et al., 2010). Changes to the food package also resulted in significant increases in WIC participant consumption of fruit, vegetables, lower fat milk and whole grain foods (Whaley et al., submitted). Overall, WIC participants report high satisfaction with the new WIC food package.