Childhood Obesity Prevention in the Women, Infants, and Children Program: Outcomes of the MA-CORD Study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the extent to which a WIC intervention improved BMI z-scores and obesity-related behaviors among children age 2–4 years. METHODS: In two Massachusetts communities, we implemented practice-changes in WIC as part of the MA-CORD initiative to prevent obesity among low-income children. One WIC program was the comparison. We assessed changes in BMI z-scores pre- and post-intervention and prevalence of obesity-related behaviors of WIC participants. We used linear mixed models to examine BMI z-score change and logistic regression models to examine changes in obesity-related behaviors in each intervention site versus comparison over two years. RESULTS: WIC-enrolled children in both intervention sites (v. Comparison) had improved sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and sleep duration. Compared to the comparison WIC program (n=626), we did not observe differences in BMI z-score among children in Intervention site #1 (n= 198) or #2 (n=637). In sensitivity analyses excluding Asian children, we observed a small decline in BMI z-score (−0.08 units/year [95% CI: −0.14 to −0.02], p=0.01) in Intervention Site #2 v. comparison. CONCLUSIONS: Among children enrolled in WIC, the MA-CORD intervention was associated with reduced prevalence of obesity risk factors in both intervention communities and a small improvement in BMI z-scores in one of two intervention communities in non-Asian children.