Maternal Smoking and the Timing of WIC Enrollment

Cristina Yunzal-Butler, Theodore J. Joyce, Andrew D. Racine

NBER Working Paper No. 14728
Issued in February 2009
NBER Program(s):Health Economics Program

We investigate the association between the timing of enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and smoking among prenatal WIC participants. We use WIC data from eight states participating in the Pregnancy Nutrition Surveillance System (PNSS). Women who enroll in WIC in the first trimester of pregnancy are 2.7 percentage points more likely to be smoking at intake than women who enroll in the third trimester. Among participants who smoked before pregnancy and at prenatal WIC enrollment, those who enrolled in the first trimester are 4.5 percentage points more likely to quit smoking 3 months before delivery and 3.4 percentage points more likely to quit by postpartum registration, compared with women who do not enroll in WIC until the third trimester. Overall, early WIC enrollment is associated with higher quit rates, although changes are modest when compared to the results from smoking cessation interventions for pregnant women.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w14728

Published: Maternal and Child Health Journal May 2010, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp 318-331 Maternal Smoking and the Timing of WIC Enrollment Cristina Yunzal-Butler, Ted Joyce, Andrew D. Racine

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