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WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Recent changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Cash-Value Benefit (CVB), which provides participants with money to spend on fruits and vegetables, have the potential to reduce disparities in healthy food access and food insecurity that were exacer...

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Autores principales: Halverson, McKenna M., Karpyn, Allison
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9460143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36079766
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14173509
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author Halverson, McKenna M.
Karpyn, Allison
author_facet Halverson, McKenna M.
Karpyn, Allison
author_sort Halverson, McKenna M.
collection PubMed
description Recent changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Cash-Value Benefit (CVB), which provides participants with money to spend on fruits and vegetables, have the potential to reduce disparities in healthy food access and food insecurity that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have examined how the changes to the CVB allotment that occurred during the pandemic influenced WIC participants’ perceptions of the benefit or their fruit and vegetable purchasing and consumption. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 51 WIC participants in Wilmington, Delaware. Survey measures included demographic questions, the Hunger Vital Sign food insecurity screener, and open-ended questions regarding perceptions of the CVB increase and its influence on participants’ fruit and vegetable purchasing and consumption. Data were analyzed using a hybrid inductive and deductive coding approach. The results demonstrate that higher CVB allotments increased WIC participants’ purchasing and consumption of fruits and vegetables, increased the frequency of their shopping occasions, and enhanced their dietary variety. Our findings also suggest that WIC participants highly value the increased CVB. Consequently, maintaining the increased CVB allotment could improve the nutritional outcomes of low-income mothers, infants, and children participating in WIC.
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spelling pubmed-94601432022-09-10 WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic Halverson, McKenna M. Karpyn, Allison Nutrients Article Recent changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Cash-Value Benefit (CVB), which provides participants with money to spend on fruits and vegetables, have the potential to reduce disparities in healthy food access and food insecurity that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have examined how the changes to the CVB allotment that occurred during the pandemic influenced WIC participants’ perceptions of the benefit or their fruit and vegetable purchasing and consumption. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 51 WIC participants in Wilmington, Delaware. Survey measures included demographic questions, the Hunger Vital Sign food insecurity screener, and open-ended questions regarding perceptions of the CVB increase and its influence on participants’ fruit and vegetable purchasing and consumption. Data were analyzed using a hybrid inductive and deductive coding approach. The results demonstrate that higher CVB allotments increased WIC participants’ purchasing and consumption of fruits and vegetables, increased the frequency of their shopping occasions, and enhanced their dietary variety. Our findings also suggest that WIC participants highly value the increased CVB. Consequently, maintaining the increased CVB allotment could improve the nutritional outcomes of low-income mothers, infants, and children participating in WIC. MDPI 2022-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9460143/ /pubmed/36079766 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14173509 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Halverson, McKenna M.
Karpyn, Allison
WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short WIC Participants’ Perceptions of the Cash-Value Benefit Increase during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort wic participants’ perceptions of the cash-value benefit increase during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9460143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36079766
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14173509
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