WIC MICA - Documentation/Metadata

Data for the WIC MICAs are acquired from the WIC Certification data set. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture program which was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1972. WIC's main purposes are to provide food supplements, nutritional risk assessments, nutrition education, and health and social services referrals to pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children up to age five who have low- to moderate-income (less than 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level). To find out more information on WIC go to: http://health.mo.gov/living/families/wic/.

The WIC MICAs analyze data from the WIC program in different ways than other reports developed by DHSS/WIC program. Because of these differences, numbers and percents found in various sources will not be the same.

Who is included in each WIC MICA?

• WIC Prenatal MICA: The WIC Prenatal MICA includes a record for each pregnancy with an estimated due date during a given calendar year. An individual mother may have more than one pregnancy during a single data year and thus may be counted twice because she would have received services twice.
• WIC Postpartum MICA: The WIC Postpartum MICA includes a record for each mother who delivered a live infant during a given calendar year if the infant was still alive at the postpartum visit. Only one record will be included for a woman with multiple births. Data are not reported for mothers with deceased infants or infants who were born alive but died prior to the first postpartum visit. These records represent a small percentage of cases, and WIC data are usually not collected for these infants.
• WIC Linked Prenatal-Postpartum MICA: The WIC Prenatal-Postpartum MICA includes a record for each mother who delivered a live infant during a given calendar year if the infant was still alive at the postpartum visit. Only one record will be included for a woman with multiple births. Data are not reported for mothers with deceased infants or infants who were born alive but died prior to the first postpartum visit.
• WIC Infant MICA: The WIC Infant MICA includes a record for each infant who was certified to receive WIC services during a given calendar year. Infancy refers to the period from birth to (but not including) the first birthday.
• WIC Child MICA: The WIC Child MICA includes a record for each child who was certified to receive WIC services during a given calendar year. Childhood refers to the period from the first birthday to (but not including) the fifth birthday.

How are WIC data collected?

• Mothers: The data reported in the WIC Prenatal MICA are collected on the prenatal mother’s certification date. Certification occurs when the participant has provided all required documentation and is eligible to receive WIC services. The timing of the WIC certification visit may impact the data available for collection. Any timing issues are explained in the specific variable definitions.
• NOTE: Data for prenatal care are not reported in the WIC MICA due to the timing of data collection, which occurs when women are certified to receive WIC services. Often, women enroll in the WIC program prior to their first prenatal care visit. As a result, WIC rates for prenatal care are much lower than rates from other sources. To obtain data on Missouri prenatal care rates, use the Birth MICA, which contains indicators on first trimester prenatal care, no prenatal care, and inadequate prenatal care collected from the birth certificate.
• Infants/Children: The data reported in the WIC MICA are collected on the participant’s certification date. Certification occurs when the participant has provided all required documentation and is eligible to receive WIC services. The timing of the WIC certification visit may impact the data available for collection. Any timing issues are explained in the specific variable definitions.

System Conversion

Beginning in December 2008, the Missouri WIC Program converted from the HANDS software system to the MOWINS software system. MOPHIMS includes data from years 2009 and later collected from the MOWINS system. Due to differences in system structure, data for some indicators are no longer collected in MOWINS, while some additional data are collected that have allowed new indicators to be added to the WIC MICAs.

Following the conversion to the MOWINS software system, staff from several units within the Department of Health and Senior Services formed a WIC Data Group to review indicators published in the WIC MICAs, the Pregnancy Nutritional Surveillance System (PNSS), the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS), and other reports that utilize WIC data. This group made several suggestions for changes to existing indicators or addition of new indicators. These changes are detailed on each WIC MICA definitions page.

Because data are unavailable for some indicators during certain years, combined rates using those indicators/years are not valid. For example, in the table below, prior live birth data are unavailable for 2009. It would not be valid to state that the combined 2009-2010 rate for participants in the WIC prenatal program with no prior live births was 16.59%. The total for selection in the example below is based solely on 2010 data.

MOHPIMS 2X2 Tables and Rate Interpretatio

Previous MICA systems restricted users to a single indicator per table. MOPHIMS has the capacity to cross indicators and generate 2x2 tables using the optional variable selections; however, this means that a user could potentially cross indicators that use two different denominators. This results in the problem of which denominator to use when calculating the rates in the table.

MOPHIMS designates the main column selection on the query page as the variable that determines the rate to be calculated. The following examples illustrate how the main column selection influences the rate calculation and interpretation by generating a table that crosses two optional variables: Smoking late pregnancy and Birth weight.

The first table was generated with the Smoking late pregnancy variable as the main column selection. Therefore, the rate was calculated using the Known late pregnancy smoking status as the denominator. The second table uses the Birth weight variable as the main column selection and Known birth weight as the denominator for rate calculations. (NOTE: For optional variables, rates for total selection use the total number of WIC participants for that specific MICA as the denominator).

The interpretation of the rate in the upper left hand corner of the table would be:

Of the WIC mothers with known late pregnancy smoking status, 26.52% of those mothers who had a low birth weight baby smoked during the last three months of pregnancy.

The interpretation of the rate in the upper left hand corner of the table would be:

12.04% of WIC mothers with known birth weight who smoked during the last three months of pregnancy had a low birth weight infant.