Georgia: Technology and WIC - A Comprehensive Approach to Public Health

With funding through USDA and Tufts University's Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) project, the Georgia WIC department will be implementing a telehealth solution for nutrition and breastfeeding support. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this telehealth solution. The research/evaluation involves completing online surveys. The evaluation will focus on participant satisfaction, usage of the telehealth solution, and use of information collected on the WIC participant through the WIC management information system (MIS). It is hypothesized that the telehealth solution will increase WIC participant's satisfaction with nutrition and breastfeeding support while also reducing the burden of attending in-person care.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Breast Feeding; Telehealth; Dietary Intake; Nutrition Education; WIC
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Telehealth solution: video conferencing

Detailed Description

Telehealth can reduce barriers and increase access to care, and it can be applied to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a federal nutrition assistance program that helps low-income women with children up to age 5. There is a large volume of research that supports remote patient monitoring, and the most benefits are found when telehealth is used for communication and counseling. The USDA awarded Tufts University a grant to test and evaluate the use of telehealth innovations in the delivery of USDA's WIC program. Tufts University then offered the USDA/Tufts Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) grant opportunity to WIC state agencies across the US. THIS-WIC selected 7 WIC State Agencies to receive grants, and the GA state agency is one recipient. The THIS-WIC team at Tufts University is leading the evaluation of these telehealth solutions in collaboration with funded WIC State Agencies.

THIS-WIC aims to generate evidence from GA's video-conferencing telehealth solution to inform how the telehealth platform supports WIC services compared to usual in-person care. Evaluation findings will inform stakeholders about the platform's benefits and how viable it is to sustain and adapt more widely.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of this telehealth solution by having clients complete surveys on their comfortability using telehealth and their satisfaction with the telehealth appointment. Additionally, secondary demographic and other nutrition-related information about study participants is already collected in the MIS and will be utilized.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2566
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02111
      • Tufts University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Pregnant women
• Breastfeeding women
• postpartum women with children in the age range of 0 to 5 years

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Usual care.
Experimental: Telehealth solution; Telehealth solution offered.	Behavioral: Telehealth solution: video conferencing; Telehealth solution: video conferencing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Satisfaction with the telehealth solution	WIC clients satisfaction with nutrition education and breastfeeding support offered via the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.	During the study period, approximately 18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attendance at scheduled appointments	WIC clients attendance at appointments when offered the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.	During the study period, approximately 18 months
Dietary intake	Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on dietary intake. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.	During the study period, approximately 18 months
Attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education	Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on WIC clients' attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.	During the study period, approximately 18 months
Barriers encountered in obtaining nutrition education and breastfeeding support	Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on barriers encountered by WIC clients in obtaining nutrition education and breastfeeding support. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.	During the study period, approximately 18 months
Breastfeeding duration	Duration of breastfeeding in clients offered the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants	During the study period, approximately 18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Tufts University
• Collaborators: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); RTI International; Georgia Department of Public Health, Division of Health Promotion
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Erin Hennessy, PhD, Tufts University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 29, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 30, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 2, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 2, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 11, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 31, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 29, 2024
• Last Verified: May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Telehealth; nutrition education; breast feeding; dietary intake; WIC
• Other Study ID Numbers: 211203

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No