MN Public Health Data Access Portal - About the WIC Data

• The percent of children served by the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Program who were overweight and obese
• Overweight and obesity trends over time for WIC children
• The percent of WIC children who were overweight and obese by age, gender, and race/ethnicity
• Health inequities in obesity and overweight prevalence by race/ethnicity and geographic location

• To inform the public about overweight and obesity among young children
• To explore trends in childhood overweight and obesity
• For program planning and evaluation by state and local partners
• Develop and adjust policies

• Measures of overweight and obesity among children 2 up to age five years not served by the WIC program
• Measures of overweight and obesity among children less than 2 years of age or 5 years of age or older
• Causes of overweight and obesity

Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to classify body weight. It is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms (kg) by square height in meters (m). BMI is used as a public health screening tool; it does not measure body fat directly.

For children ages two up to age five years, BMI is plotted on a growth chart using the Centers for Disease Control 2000 reference population. A percentile reflects how the child's BMI compares to other children of the same age and gender. For example, a 3-year-old boy in the 95th percentile for BMI has a BMI higher than 95% of 3-year-old boys.

BMI percentile is used to determine weight status category based on the CDC 2000 reference population:

Data come from the Minnesota Women, Infant & Children (WIC) Information System. The WIC Program serves eligible women, infants, and children up to age five. Visit Minnesota WIC for additional information.

In 2018, WIC served approximately 57,400 Minnesota children (up to age five) every month. For more info see the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s webpage on WIC eligibility and coverage rates.

Height and weight data used to determine BMI percentile are collected at the WIC clinic where a family receives their services.

Childhood obesity data are not representative of all Minnesota children. Data are representative of eligible, low-income children in Minnesota who are enrolled in the WIC Program.

• WIC is a state-administered program that serves children whose families meet certain eligibility requirements.
• Not all children who are eligible for WIC participate in the program. However, Minnesota WIC does have one of the best coverage rates in the country. In recent years, Minnesota WIC has served approximately 40% of all infants born in Minnesota and 66% of eligible individuals.
• For more info see the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s webpage on WIC eligibility and coverage rates and the MN Department of Health’s fact sheet Minnesota WIC Facts 2021. 

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2000-2010 should not be compared to data from 2011 and later. Prior to 2011, BRFSS only sampled adults in households with landline telephones. Beginning in 2011, BRFSS included adults who received the majority of their calls on cellular telephones. Also beginning in 2011, the weighting methodology changed to better account for underrepresented groups of people (such as young adults and racial/ethnic minorities) and allow for the incorporation of cellular telephone data. This new methodology reduces bias and increases the representativeness of estimates.

A difference, increase, or decrease is indicated as "statistically significant" when the 95% confidence intervals for percentages do not overlap. In statistics, this means that two or more percentages are significantly different at the α=0.05 significance level.

MN WIC is the only population-based data on measured weight status in lower income children ages 2 up to age 5 in Minnesota.

Other sources of childhood obesity data include:

• State and regional data on weight status of students in select grades are available through the Minnesota Student Survey.
• State-level data on weight status in older children (ages 10-17) for select years are available through the National Survey of Children's Health.
• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides data and findings from recent scientific studies on childhood obesity.

For additional information, visit WIC Reports & Data or contact the Minnesota State WIC Office at 1-800-657-3942 or 1-651-201-4404.