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Defining and Applying Age-Specific Retention Measures Among Infants and Children in the WIC Program
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DOI：10.1177/08901171261472612.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Purpose</jats:title>
<jats:p>
Assessing continued participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is challenging due to the lack of standardized retention measures. We propose child-level retention and engagement metrics and demonstrate their application in evaluating associations between a specific WIC policy change—the increase in the cash-value benefit (CVB)—and retention
<jats:bold>.</jats:bold>
</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Design</jats:title>
<jats:p>Longitudinal observational study.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Setting</jats:title>
<jats:p>Administrative data (March 2019–December 2023) from a tribal WIC state agency.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Sample</jats:title>
<jats:p>5,794 WIC participants enrolled as infants (0–11 months).</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Measures</jats:title>
<jats:p>Three measures were constructed: (1) age-specific retention (2) a summary retention ratio, capturing participation over the entire eligibility period, and (3) an engagement measure based on household benefit redemption during certification periods.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Analysis</jats:title>
<jats:p>Cross-tabulations and t-tests were used to analyze retention and engagement. Logistic regression models estimated the odds of retention following the CVB policy change.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>
Retention ranged from 63–72% across age groups. Retained participants redeemed benefits more frequently than non-retained participants during their prior certification period. Among children with full follow-up, 34% completed all eligible certifications. After CVB increase, retention from infancy to age one was four percentage points higher (
<jats:italic toggle="yes">P</jats:italic>
= .026).
</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>
<jats:p>The proposed measures provide a practical framework for monitoring WIC retention and engagement and for examining changes over time, including in relation to policy changes.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
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