A groundbreaking effort is transforming how we understand the impact of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), thanks to new longitudinal data. For decades, WIC evaluations relied on cross-sectional snapshots, but now, researchers can have a clearer picture of participants’ long-term engagement and health outcomes. Westat, in collaboration with a WIC state agency, successfully piloted a longitudinal WIC Participant and Program Characteristics (PC) data set, linking participant records across 6 years with over 99% accuracy.
Building on this success, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) tasked Westat with leading the first national collection of longitudinal WIC PC data. Now, in 2025, Westat is nearing completion of this groundbreaking data collection, bringing vital insights into participation trends and child growth patterns.
Learn more about the pilot WIC PC longitudinal data set and its findings: Development of a WIC Participant and Program Characteristics Longitudinal Data Set | Food and Nutrition Service
