Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Identity Modify Postpartum Participation in the Minnesota WIC Program

To examine the racial, ethnic and cultural differences in postpartum participation of women who participated in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) during pregnancy by completing a retrospective analysis of observational data on 35,903 women who enrolled in Minnesota WIC during pregnancy, from April 2018 to March 2020.

Descriptive analyses were completed using chi-square tests of association to show differences in postpartum WIC participation by maternal demographics and health risk codes of the WIC participants. Binary logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to obtain odds ratios to compare the likelihood of postpartum WIC participation across different races, ethnicities and cultural groups.

Asian/Pacific Islander, East African, Hispanic, Hmong, Multigenerational Black, and Other Black pregnant participants were more likely than White participants to return to WIC postpartum (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.87-3.46; AOR 3.35, 95% CI 2.40-4.66; 1.30, 95% CI 1.10-1.54; AOR 6.76, 95% CI 4.39-10.42; AOR 1.40, 95% CI 1.11-1.77, AOR 1.52, 95% CI 1.26-1.83, respectively). American Indian pregnant participants were less likely than White participants to return to WIC postpartum (AOR 0.70, 95% CI 0.54-0.92).

These findings can help the Minnesota WIC program, as well as other WIC programs, better understand which cultural groups may need more specific outreach strategies to keep women participating in the program after giving birth. Further research is needed to understand why postpartum women choose to participate, or choose not to participate, in WIC.