BACKGROUND: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program improves infant, child, and maternal outcomes. While Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women have higher WIC participation, evaluations among non-Hispanic Asian and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations and among granular racial/ethnic subgroups (e.g., Chinese) are limited.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate WIC participation during pregnancy among broad racial/ethnic categories and granular racial/ethnic subgroups, overall and by maternal nativity.
METHODS: We used birth certificates from the National Center for Health Statistics to evaluate 6,634,957 Medicaid-covered births (2018–2022). Using marginal effects from multivariable logistic regressions, we compared WIC participation during pregnancy among broad racial/ethnic categories and among granular subgroups of Hispanic, Asian, and NHPI women, overall and by maternal nativity.
RESULTS: The overall rate of reported WIC participation was 60.1% and ranged from 46.4% (NHPI) to 66.9% (Hispanic) among broad racial/ethnic categories. The largest variation among granular racial/ethnic subgroups was within the Asian category (Other Asian [61.3%] vs Korean [36.5%]). Three broad racial/ethnic categories (White, NHPI, and Multiple Race) had higher rates among US- versus foreign-born women, and three broad racial/ethnic categories (Black, Asian, and Hispanic) had lower rates among US-born women.
CONCLUSIONS: Understanding disparities in WIC participation may improve access to resources by facilitating tailored interventions to better serve underrepresented populations, such as by improving educational outreach or culturally tailoring food options. Given improvements in perinatal and infant outcomes associated with WIC, increases in WIC participation among minoritized populations may ultimately aid in addressing the large disparities in infant and maternal outcomes.
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation during pregnancy: Racial/ethnic inequities among Medicaid-covered Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic women
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 13 (4), 2752-2759. doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02452-3. PMCID: PMC12440130.