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Table 1 Covariates included in WIC and birth weight analyses, Washington State and Florida, 2005–2009.

From: The effect of women, infant, and children (WIC) services on birth weight before and during the 2007–2009 great recession in Washington state and Florida: a pooled cross-sectional time series analysis

Covariate Level

Covariate Name/Description

Individual

• Race/ethnicity: non-Hispanic White, Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Asian, Othera

• Maternal age

• Marital status (married/unmarried)

• Mother foreign-born (Yes/No)

• Maternal education (less than high school; high school diploma or GED; some college; not assessed (age < 20 years)

• WIC (maternal WIC enrollment) (Yes/No)

• Maternal insurance status (e.g., Medicaid or private insurance).

• Late/No prenatal care (0-mother entered prenatal care during first trimester; 1-mother entered prenatal care after the first trimester or not at all)

Communityb

(at the local health jurisdiction level unless otherwise indicated)

• Core Based Statistical Area (metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural)

• Community poverty (binary variable 1 = local health jurisdictions with the highest percentage (top 1/3) of residents age 0–17 years in poverty by state; and binary variable 2 = lower 2/3 of residents in poverty (non-poor local health jurisdictions)c

• Percent of voters voting Republican (vs. Democrat or Independent) in the 2004 and 2008 presidential electionsd

• Gini coefficient (2000 census: measure of income distribution/inequality (0–1), larger number > inequality)e

• Per Capita General and Family Practitioner MDs/local health jurisdictions (for years 2005, 2008, 2010)f

• Per capita local health jurisdiction unemployment rateg

Expenditureh

• Total local health department expenditures

• WIC expenditures

• Family planning expenditures

• MICA services expenditures

• Maternal and child health—combined expendituresi

State

• State-level dummy variables were created for WA and FL to capture any state-level differences

  1. Abbreviations: FL State of Florida; GED General Education Diploma; MD Medical doctor; MICA Maternal/infant/ child/adolescent: WA State of Washington: WIC Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
  2. a Race/ethnicity groups were defined using data from two separate variables (maternal race and maternal ethnicity) to create a 5-category combined race/ethnicity variable
  3. b Community level covariates were selected based on previous research or for which social determinants of health theories suggest a plausible association to maternal and child health outcomes in the context of the Great Recession; source: references [16, 17, 26, 27, 32,33,34,35,36]
  4. c Source: references [25, 26, 30, 32]
  5. d The voting patterns measure was intended to act as a proxy for differences in political orientation at the community level as previous research has identified Republican voters as less likely to perceive that there are people in the United States who encounter access to care issues as well as less likely to support public health reform; references [33,34,35]
  6. e Source: reference [36]
  7. f Source: reference [32]
  8. g Individual unemployment data were not available
  9. h Local health department-specific per capita expenditure data were included in the preliminary model as the Great Recession yielded widespread reports of budget cuts to local health departments; source: references [25, 26]. Per capita rates were calculated using total local health jurisdiction population as a denominator. Differences in fiscal years between WA and FL were reconciled by assigning FL’s fiscal year to the earlier year (e.g., FL fiscal year 2005–2006 associated with WA fiscal year 2005)
  10. i MICA represents a composite of similar budget categories for WA and FL that includes comparable intervention activities across both states—e.g., home visiting, prenatal health programs; source: references [25, 26]
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BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

ISSN: 1471-2393

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