Client satisfaction with the nutrition education component of the California WIC program

Past evaluation research has documented improved nutritional outcomes resul ting from participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for W omen, Infants and Children (WIC). However, these evaluations have not exami ned the program from the clients' perspective, nor have they examined the i ndependent effect of the nutrition education component. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively and qualitatively examine client satisfaction with the nutrition education component of the California WIC program. The m ethodology consisted of two phases. During phase I of the study (the quanti tative component), participants completed Client Satisfaction Surveys immed iately following attendance of one nutrition class. During phase II (the qu alitative component), four focus groups were conducted. All subjects were p articipants in the California WIC program. Client Satisfaction Surveys were completed by 2138 participants, and the focus groups included 29 participa nts. Results from both phases of the study indicated that client satisfacti on with the nutrition education component of the California WIC program was high. Between 80% and 95% of participants responded positively to five sat isfaction questions, and focus group participants unanimously agreed that t he nutrition education was an essential component of the program. Hispanic participants were more likely than non-Hispanic Caucasians, Asians, or Afri can Americans to respond positively to three of the five satisfaction quest ions. For two of the questions, the frequency of positive responses increas ed as age increased and decreased as education level increased. A small seg ment of clients reported some dissatisfaction by responding negatively to o ne or more of the satisfaction questions (4% to 20% of respondents). Some s uggestions for improvement were made by survey respondents. Identification of some WIC participants who are not completely satisfied with the nutritio n education that they have received, paired with differences in satisfactio n across demographic variables, suggests the need for a personalized approa ch to WIC nutrition education.