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OBJECTIVES: By the end of the session, attendees will be able to: (1) Articulate the methodology of and notable findings from the USDA WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 (WIC ITFPS-2); and (2) Summarize the major domains of data available through age 5 in the WIC ITFPS-2 public use dataset. METHODS: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is the premier public health nutrition program for low-income, nutritionally at-risk pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to age five. To better understand how WIC participation is associated with the health and nutrition outcomes of young children, USDA funded the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 (ITFPS-2) in 2011. WIC ITFPS-2 is a national, longitudinal study of 3775 mother-child dyads who enrolled in WIC either during the mother's pregnancy or shortly after the child was born. The study interviews participants every 2 to 6 months through the child's fifth birthday, with two additional follow-ups at ages 6 and 9 years. The study captures information on children's health and nutrition status, including 24 hour dietary recall data; mothers’ feeding practices and beliefs; household food security; and WIC participation patterns. Data are weighted to produce national estimates. As of June 2021, data through children's fifth birthday (i.e., all years during which children were categorically eligible for WIC) are publicly available. RESULTS: Using descriptive, univariate, and multivariate techniques, analyses across the first 6 study reports have demonstrated positive associations between WIC and diet outcomes among young children. After controlling for other factors, longer WIC participation was associated with higher Health Eating Index-2015 scores at various time points, with lower daily energy intake, and with meeting the Dietary Guidelines recommendation to limit added sugar. CONCLUSIONS: Across children's first five years of life, WIC participation has been associated with improved dietary intake and better diet quality, among other positive outcomes. The WIC ITFPS-2 dataset is publicly available and should be leveraged by researchers to further explore the health and nutrition status of low-income children during the early years of life. FUNDING SOURCES: WIC ITFPS-2 is funded by USDA contract number AG-3198-B-11–0020 with Westat.

The utility of EBV load as a tumor marker in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients suggests that it might also serve as a screening test for individuals who are at high risk for developing NPC. We previously demonstrated that unaffected individuals from high-risk families had elevated anti-EBV antibody levels compared to community controls. In this study, we measured EBV load using 2 different real-time PCR assays (targeting BamH1W and polymerase gene sequences, respectively) carried out in 2 independent research labs in serum samples from 19 untreated NPC cases, 11 healthy community controls and 100 unaffected individuals from families in which 2 or more individuals were affected with NPC. EBV genomes were detectable in 68% of NPC cases by the EBV BamH1W assay and in 74% by the EBV polymerase assay (κ = 0.64). Patients with stage III or IV disease had significantly higher EBV load compared to those with stage I or II disease (p = 0.008). EBV DNA was detected in a single community control sample by the EBV BamH1W assay and in none of the samples by the EBV polymerase assay. Only one of 100 unaffected family members tested positive by both assays. An additional 14 were positive by only one of the 2 EBV load assays used and usually in only one of the duplicate wells tested, all with very low viral loads (3–50 copies/ml). In addition, EBV load did not correlate with EBV serology results (anti-VCA, anti-DNase, anti-EBNA-1) among these unaffected family members. In conclusion, our study suggests limited clinical utility of the EBV load test, in its current configuration, to screen individuals from high-risk families. Should a more sensitive or specific molecular assay be developed that is capable of detecting and distinguishing tumor-derived EBV genomes or gene products from true negatives, it could be evaluated as a possible screening tool for asymptomatic and early-stage NPC. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Most adults have been infected with EBV. Many studies have indicated that antibodies against specific EBV antigens, particularly IgA antibodies, can be predictive or prognostic of EBV-associated malignancies, such as NPC. We hypothesized that healthy individuals from families with a history of multiple members affected with NPC (who therefore might be genetically susceptible to NPC themselves) might have an EBV antibody profile that is distinct from that seen in healthy individuals from the community at large. To explore this possibility and examine determinants of anti-EBV antibody levels in healthy, high-risk individuals, we evaluated data from 2 parallel studies of NPC in Taiwan, which included 1,229 healthy members of families in which 2 or more individuals were affected with NPC and 320 controls from the community at large. Blood collected from participants was tested for IgA antibodies against EBV VCA and EBNA-1 and for neutralizing antibodies against EBV DNase using standard assays. We observed evidence of familial aggregation of EBV seroreactivity among individuals from high-risk, multiplex NPC families. Anti-VCA IgA and anti-EBNA-1 IgA antibody seroprevalence in unaffected family members of NPC cases was 5-6 times higher than in members of the community (p < 0.01). This elevated seroprevalence among unaffected individuals from high-risk families was observed regardless of the relationship of the unaffected individual to the closest affected relative (siblings, parents, children or spouses). No sociodemographic or environmental factors examined were found to strongly and consistently correlate with elevated seroprevalence, but patterns emerged of increasing seroprevalence among older individuals and among females. Unaffected individuals from high-risk NPC families have elevated anti-EBV IgA antibody titers. The etiologic and clinical implications of this finding remain to be established.