WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016
Description of the experiment setting: location, influential climatic conditions, controlled conditions (e.g. temperature, light cycle)
In 1986, the Congress enacted Public Laws 99-500 and 99-591, requiring a biennial report on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). In response to these requirements, FNS developed a prototype system that allowed for the routine acquisition of information on WIC participants from WIC State Agencies. Since 1992, State Agencies have provided electronic copies of these data to FNS on a biennial basis.
FNS and the National WIC Association (formerly National Association of WIC Directors) agreed on a set of data elements for the transfer of information. In addition, FNS established a minimum standard dataset for reporting participation data. For each biennial reporting cycle, each State Agency is required to submit a participant-level dataset containing standardized information on persons enrolled at local agencies for the reference month of April.
The 2016 Participant and Program Characteristics (PC2016) is the thirteenth data submission to be completed using the WIC PC reporting system. In April 2016, there were 90 State agencies: the 50 States, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, and 34 Indian tribal organizations.
Processing methods and equipment used Specifications on formats (“Guidance for States Providing Participant Data”) were provided to all State agencies in January 2016. This guide specified 20 minimum dataset (MDS) elements and 11 supplemental dataset (SDS) elements to be reported on each WIC participant. Each State Agency was required to submit all 20 MDS items and any SDS items collected by the State agency. Study date(s) and duration The information for each participant was from the participants’ most current WIC certification as of April 2016. Due to management information constraints, Connecticut provided data for a month other than April 2016, specifically August 16 – September 15, 2016.
Study spatial scale (size of replicates and spatial scale of study area) In April 2016, there were 90 State agencies: the 50 States, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, and 34 Indian tribal organizations.
Level of true replication Unknown
Sampling precision (within-replicate sampling or pseudoreplication) State Agency Data Submissions. PC2016 is a participant dataset consisting of 8,815,472 active records. The records, submitted to USDA by the State Agencies, comprise a census of all WIC enrollees, so there is no sampling involved in the collection of this data.
PII Analytic Datasets. State agency files were combined to create a national census participant file of approximately 8.8 million records. The census dataset contains potentially personally identifiable information (PII) and is therefore not made available to the public.
National Sample Dataset. The public use SAS analytic dataset made available to the public has been constructed from a nationally representative sample drawn from the census of WIC participants, selected by participant category. The nationally representative sample is composed of 60,003 records. The distribution by category is 5,449 pregnant women, 4,661 breastfeeding women, 3,904 postpartum women, 13,999 infants, and 31,990 children.
Level of subsampling (number and repeat or within-replicate sampling) The proportionate (or self-weighting) sample was drawn by WIC participant category: pregnant women, breastfeeding women, postpartum women, infants, and children. In this type of sample design, each WIC participant has the same probability of selection across all strata. Sampling weights are not needed when the data are analyzed. In a proportionate stratified sample, the largest stratum accounts for the highest percentage of the analytic sample.
Study design (before–after, control–impacts, time series, before–after-control–impacts) None – Non-experimental
Description of any data manipulation, modeling, or statistical analysis undertaken Each entry in the dataset contains all MDS and SDS information submitted by the State agency on the sampled WIC participant. In addition, the file contains constructed variables used for analytic purposes. To protect individual privacy, the public use file does not include State agency, local agency, or case identification numbers.
Description of any gaps in the data or other limiting factors Due to management information constraints, Connecticut provided data for a month other than April 2016, specifically August 16 – September 15, 2016. Outcome measurement methods and equipment used None
Resources in this dataset:
Resource Title: WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016.
File Name: wicpc_2016_public.csv
Resource Description: The 2016 Participant and Program Characteristics (PC2016) is the thirteenth data submission to be completed using the WIC PC reporting system. In April 2016, there were 90 State agencies: the 50 States, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, and 34 Indian tribal organizations.
Resource Software Recommended: SAS, version 9.4,url: https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/sas9.html
Resource Title: WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016 Codebook.
File Name: WICPC2016_PUBLIC_CODEBOOK.xlsx
Resource Software Recommended: SAS, version 9.4,url: https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/sas9.html
Resource Title: WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016 - Zip File with SAS, SPSS and STATA data.
File Name: WIC_PC_2016_SAS_SPSS_STATA_Files.zip
Resource Description: WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016 - Zip File with SAS, SPSS and STATA data
Funding
USDA-FNS
History
Data contact name
USDA FNS Office of Policy SupportData contact email
OpsDataRequests@usda.govPublisher
Ag Data CommonsIntended use
WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2016 (PC 2016) summarizes demographic, income, and health-related characteristics and behaviors of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). PC 2016 is the most recent in a series of biennial reports generated from WIC State management information systems since 1992.Use limitations
Findings related to several variables in PC2016 data should be interpreted with caution. Most data quality challenges resulted from inconsistent variable definitions and limitations within State agency management information systems. Potential data limitations are described in detail in the 2016 WIC PC report, available online at https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-participant-and-program-characteristics-2016. For some State agencies, the median breastfeeding duration was greater than 26 weeks. Because of data limitations, medians of greater than 26 weeks could not be measured, so the median duration is reported as more than 26 (26.0+) weeks. Due to management information constraints, Connecticut provided data for a month other than April 2016, specifically August 16 – September 15, 2016.Temporal Extent Start Date
2016-04-01Temporal Extent End Date
2016-04-30Frequency
- biennially
Theme
- Not specified
Geographic location - description
United States, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, and 34 Indian tribal organizationsISO Topic Category
- health
National Agricultural Library Thesaurus terms
climatic factors; temperature; photoperiod; WIC Program; infants; children; Food and Nutrition Service; prototypes; data collection; American Samoa; District of Columbia; Guam; Northern Mariana Islands; Puerto Rico; Virgin Islands of the United States; processing technology; equipment; certification; Connecticut; pregnant women; breast feeding; probability; experimental design; time series analysis; models; statistical analysisOMB Bureau Code
- 005:84 - Food and Nutrition Service
OMB Program Code
- 005:040 - National Research
- 005:041 - Economic Research, Market Outlook, and Policy Analysis
Pending citation
- No
Public Access Level
- Public