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The HSR WIC
Services Team has extensive experience researching issues effecting the
service delivery and performance of WIC. HSR has conducted these studies
on the national and state levels for USDA's Food and Nutrition Service
and can use this research experience to help improve your program or evaluate
pieces of your WIC program.
See the study
descriptions below for examples.
WIC
Vendor Management Study
WIC
Vendor Management Study: Appendices
Under a contract
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service,
HSR conducted a study examining the incidence and prevalence of WIC
vendors who violate WIC program rules. The purpose of the study was
to collect and analyze data about State WIC Program vendor management
practices, to determine the extent to which WIC vendors nationwide violate
program rules, and to understand the factors associated with such violations.
Some important
findings were:
- Vendors who
failed to provide a receipt to WIC clients were ten times more likely
to overcharge than those providing a receipt were.
- Small vendors
are three times as likely to overcharge than middle-sized or large
vendors are.
- Vendors that
failed to have the buyer sign the WIC voucher prior to entering the
price were four to six times more likely to overcharge than those
who had the buyer sign the voucher after the purchase amount was written
on the voucher.
Contact
us for help on
improving your vendor management practices.
WIC/HRSA
Coordination Best Practices Handbook
Health Systems
Research, Inc. was awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Food and Nutrition Service to research and develop a "Best Practices
Handbook" designed to promote and facilitate the coordination and
integration of the WIC program with health care and social support services
provided through Community/Migrant Health Centers (C/MHC) and Indian
Health Services (IHS) clinics. This effort was the third and final stage
of a project required by WIC reauthorization legislation to foster coordination
among the WIC program and collaborating primary health care agencies.
The Handbook showcases
commendable programs that have demonstrated model initiatives in a variety
of organizational, fiscal, and clinical areas and have significantly
improved the coordination and/or integration of services. Additionally,
the Handbook was designed to serve as a tool to motivate WIC, C/MHC
and IHS providers to develop and implement concrete action plans to
strengthen coordination. The Handbook includes:
- Description
of 12 model sites across the country.
- Discussion
of the benefits of improved coordination to clients and providers.
- Discussion
of the barriers to coordination and integration and solutions for
eliminating or managing barriers.
- Assessment
tool which agencies can use to determine their current status of
coordination and monitor improvements over time.
Contact us
for more information.
The Feasibility
of Analyzing WIC Food Purchasing Patterns Using Combined Issuance and
Transaction Data
Under a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Food and Nutrition Service, HSR examined the food purchasing patterns
of WIC participants. This study represented the first effort to produce
profiles of the WIC food purchasing patterns of various groups of WIC
participants by taking advantage of grocery store bar-code scanning
technology. By using bar-code scanning technology, Universal Product
Codes (UPCs), and Local Product Codes (LPCs), supermarket checkout systems
can generate a wealth of data about individual food purchases.
Two specific research objectives of this study were
to assess the feasibility of describing the food purchasing patterns
of WIC participants and to determine the statistical variability in
these patterns across participant and store demographic characteristics.
The WIC food purchasing study involved the development of an analysis
plan and development of complex computer programs to translate UPCs
into analytical data for the purpose of examining WIC purchases at the
point-of-sale. In addition, HSR collected complex administrative and
participant data from WIC program officials to match with the UPC data.
The final product included both the feasibility analysis and recommendations
of how this methodology could be used by State WIC programs to improve
their vendor compliance and nutrition education programs.
Contact us for more information
and on how we can help you determine the food purchasing patterns of
your clients.
Adolescent
WIC Participants Study
Under a contract
with the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service,
HSR helped to develop and conduct a qualitative and quantitative needs
assessment for adolescent participants in the WIC program. Through two
national surveys, one of WIC clinic directors and the other of WIC adolescents,
information was collected about the nutritional knowledge, attitudes,
and beliefs of adolescents in the WIC program as well as appropriate
nutrition education strategies, and referral needs.
The WIC adolescent
needs assessment ultimately will help WIC program mangers design better
systems to address the needs of this special population. The study's
conclusion, that adolescents need special attention by WIC program administrators,
are supported with solid recommendation on how to better use data to
track and improve services for adolescents.
Contact
us for more information.
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