2017 New York State Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System Report

The annual New York State (NYS) Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS) report provides data on the prevalence and trends of nutrition-related indicators for infants and children (<5 years of age) who are enrolled in the NYS Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The list of indicators includes low birthweight, short stature, underweight, overweight, anemia, breastfeeding (e.g. initiation, duration, and exclusivity), smoking in household, and TV viewing.

If you have any questions regarding the PedNSS reports, please send your inquiry to WICDATA@health.ny.gov with PedNSS as the subject title.

Highlights from the 2017 NYS PedNSS Report

Demographic Characteristics

  • There was a 4.8% decrease in the number of individual infants and children certified in 2017 (391, 599) compared to those certified in 2016 (411,311) (Table 1C).
  • The percentage of WIC infants and children who identified as White declined slightly (26.9% in 2017 vs. 27.2% in 2016), remained stable for those who identified as Black (21.6%) and Hispanic (37.2%), and increased slightly for those who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander (11.3% in 2017 vs. 11.0% in 2016) (Table 1C).
  • A majority of NYS WIC families (84.5%) were living below 130 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) in 2017, a 1.3 percentage point decrease compared to 2016 (85.8%). Additionally, there was a 2.0 percentage point decrease in families below 100 percent FPL compared to 2016 (Table 1C). This may indicate a continuing positive shift in household economic conditions among NYS WIC families in 2017.

Birth Weight

  • In 2017, the prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) increased to 9.6 percent among infants and children from 9.4 percent in 2016 (Table 2C). The prevalence of low birth weight has steadily increased from 8.9 percent in 2006 to 9.6 percent in 2017 (Table 18C). The corresponding Healthy People 2020 (HP2020†) objective is to reduce the rate of LBW to 7.8 percent.

Growth Indicators

  • The prevalence of short stature held steady at 5.5 percent in 2017 compared to 5.4 percent in 2016 (Table 12C). Based on age-appropriate Growth Charts§,, the prevalence of short stature among infants and children less than two years of age tends to decrease with age, with the prevalence tending to be higher among infants than among children one year of age for all racial/ethnic groups (Table 16C). Among children two years of age and older, Whites consistently had the highest prevalence of short stature at all age categories compared to children of other races/ethnicities. An overall increase in the prevalence of short stature at all ages is evident from 2006 (4.7%) to 2017 (5.5%) (Table 20C).
  • Among all infants and children in the NYS WIC program, the prevalence of underweight and obesity held steady in 2017 (4.5% and 10.4%, respectively) compared to 2016 (4.4% and 10.5%, respectively) (Table 12C).
  • Among children two years of age and older, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 2017 remained stable compared to that in 2016 (15.7% & 13.9% compared to 15.5% & 13.7%, respectively) (Table 12C). Hispanics had the highest overweight and obesity prevalence in all age categories (i.e., 17.1% & 14.3% for aged 2, 17.7% & 18.4% for aged 3, and 17.9% & 21.3% for aged 4, respectively), while Asians had the lowest overweight and obesity rates in all age categories (i.e., 10.4% & 6.6% for aged 2, 12.0% & 9.6% for aged 3, and 12.7% & 11.9% for aged 4, respectively) (Table 16C).

Breastfeeding Indicators

  • The breastfeeding initiation rate continued to increase from 84.8 percent in 2016 to 85.3 percent in 2017, with increases across all racial/ethnic groups except for Whites, whose rates remained the same (Table 19C). Asians and American Indian/Alaskan Natives had the largest increase (2.8 and 1.2 percentage points, respectively). Whites (with the initiation rate at 80.1%) was the only racial/ethnic group that did not reached the HP2020† breastfeeding initiation goal of 81.9% in 2017.
  • There were slight improvements in breastfeeding duration indicators in the 2017 PedNSS report compared to those in the 2016 report (Table 3C). In particular, 55.7 percent (vs. 55.3%), 42.0 percent (vs. 41.4%), and 25.1 percent (vs. 24.2%) of infants in the 2017 (vs. 2016) cohort were breastfed for ≥3, ≥6, and ≥12 months, respectively. The NYS WIC program continued to make progress toward meeting the HP2020† objectives for breastfeeding ≥6 months (60.6%) and ≥12 months (34.1%).
  • In 2017, the overall prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at ≥3 months and at ≥6 months remained steady compared to 2016 (15.3% vs. 15.1%, and 9.2% vs. 9.2%, respectively) (Table 3C).

†https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/About-Healthy-People
§https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/growthcharts/resources/sas.htm
http://www.who.int/childgrowth/en/

State Level Statistics

County Level Statistics