The Impact of Online Nutrition Education on WIC Client Retention and Redemption of the Cash Value Benefit of Fruit/Vegetables

Abstract

Describe the effectiveness that online nutrition education has on WIC participants in maintaining program participation. All participants of the Indiana Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infant and Children (WIC) receive supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health care referrals. The Indiana WIC program established an online nutrition education program to help eliminate barriers to participants who are unable to be physically present for their second nutrition education appointments. The aim of this study was to compare the participation of WIC participants enrolled in standard in-person appointments with WIC participants enrolled in the Online Nutrition Education (ONE) pilot program by assessing the completion of the ONE lessons and the cash value benefit usage at 3 months after participants’ acceptance into the WIC program. A quasi-experiment was performed using a time series comparison of WIC participant attendance at their in-person nutrition education appointment to participants completion of an online nutrition education lesson. A second comparison of the two groups observed the participants redemption of their cash value benefit on fruits and vegetables (CVB). A total of 68,748 participants attended the traditional second nutrition education contact appointment during February 1 – September 7, 2019 and with the addition of the ONE pilot a total of 78,857 participants attended in 2020. The increase in participation from 2019 to 2020 was statistically significant (P=0.035). Analysis showed that there was a significant difference (P ≤ 0.001) between the 2019 and 2020 CVB mean redemption rates. This study provides evidence that WIC participants are more likely to maintain their participation when offered the addition of an online nutrition education appointment type.