Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Presentation Icons

Additional registration fee required

Faculty have requested this content not be shared outside of the session

CME Credit Offered

Abstract Award

Recording available 2/16-5/2

AIUM Credit

Foundation Awardee

Poster Icons

Abstract Award

Foundation Awardee

Poster Session 1

Category: Perinatal Mental Health

Poster Session 1

(98) Perinatal Depression Screening Among Individuals Using WIC: A PRAMS Secondary Analysis

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Submitting Author(s)

Anna R. Whelan, MD

Assistant Professor
UMass Chan Medical School
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Presenting Author(s)

Abigail Howell, BA (she/her/hers)

Medical Student, MS2
UMass Chan Medical School
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Objective:
Pregnant people who use the WIC (Women Infants and Children) program have been demonstrated to have higher rates of perinatal depression compared to those not using WIC. Individuals on WIC have higher rates of risk factors for depression including less social support, lower income, and lower education. As such, regular screening for depression is essential for people on WIC. This study aimed to compare rates of depression screening among patients using WIC to those not using WIC throughout the perinatal period

Study Design:
This is a secondary analysis of data from the CDC’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) from 2016-2022. Participants who answered “yes” to using WIC were compared to those who answered “no” to using WIC. The primary outcome was screening for perinatal depression. Stata v18 was used for all analyses utilizing complex survey weighting.

Results:
Of the 246,130 PRAMS participants, 88,945 (36.1%) reported using WIC. Demographic differences between groups were seen by race, ethnicity, education level (Table 1). Patients with WIC delivered earlier, were less likely to breastfeed, and had higher rates of depression and anxiety before pregnancy (Table 1). Participants using WIC were more likely to be asked about depression prior to (aOR 1.28, 95%CI 1.24-1.34) and during pregnancy (aOR 1.34, 95%CI 1.29-1.39) but less likely to be asked about depression at their postpartum visit (aOR 0.91, 95%CI 0.86-0.95) even when adjusting for non-white race, ethnicity, marital status, education and history of depression.

Conclusion:
ndividuals using WIC are at higher risk of perinatal depression and despite increased screening prior to conception and during pregnancy, postpartum screening falls short. While obstetrics providers should continue to work to improve screening in the postpartum period, individuals using WIC are also in contact with public health professionals including nurses. This may represent the opportunity for future development of community-based systems for depression screening and referral.