Appendix I Sample Follow-up Email to WIC State Agencies

APPENDIX I:

Sample Follow-up Email to WIC State Agencies

OMB Number: 0584-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Good Morning,

Thank you for submitting the April WIC participant characteristic data for [STATE].   The diagnostic tables have been prepared and reviewed.  Attached you will find some suggestions and questions raised during an evaluation of the tables.  Relevant tables have also been included for ease of review. 

After you have a chance to review the questions and the tables, we would appreciate your feedback, or we are happy to discuss them with you in a brief conference call and answer any questions you may have.  Please respond by [DATE] or let me know when would be a convenient time for you in the next week to schedule a conference call.  I can be reached by phone at [ANALYST PHONE] or by email at [ANALYST EMAIL].

Sincerely,

[ANALYST SIGNATURE]

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-XXXX. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

The document below is a sample of the issue memo sent with the follow-up email. The issue memos have copies of diagnostic tables attached illustrating each WIC SA’s specific issues in the data.

[DATE]

MEMORANDUM

To: [WIC SA PC CONTACT]

CC: [ADDITIONAL WIC SA STAFF]

From: [ANALYST]

Subject: [STATE]’s WIC PC[YEAR] Data Submission

Thank you for submitting the April WIC participant characteristics data for [STATE]. We have thoroughly reviewed the data and would like to talk with you about some aspects of the submission. These issues are described below and the relevant tables have been attached. Please let me know when we can set up a conference call to discuss the data submission and any next steps we might take. I can be reached at [ANALYST PHONE] or [ANALYST EMAIL].

Income or Income Range – Table 38

No participants have $0 income. Does [STATE] truly have no participants with $0 income, or are there any reasons for this missing data? Also, approximately 8 percent of participants reported an income of $1. A numeric value of 1 should indicate an actual dollar amount, not missing data. Please let us know if these income values are $1 or if they may indicate missing values or participants without income.

Nutritional Risk Code #2 – Table 44

More than half of infants and children are missing a second nutritional risk code. We expect most infants and children to have more than one nutritional risk code. Please describe any factors or policies that could contribute to these high missing values for infants and children.

Date Breastfeeding Data Collected – Table 84

This table displays data on infants and children who were 6 to 13 months old in April [YEAR]. Within this group, 21 percent infants and children who reported that they were currently breastfeeding were between 0 and 4 months of age when breastfeeding data were collected, including 9 percent for whom this information was collected at birth. This indicates that the breastfeeding information is old and will likely provide an inaccurate estimate of breastfeeding duration in [STATE]. Is [STATE] able to report a date that more accurately reflects when the breastfeeding data were collected or confirmed for these infants and children?

Food Package Codes – Table 87a

Food package prescriptions are expected to be reported for all participants (except partially breastfeeding women who do not receive a food package). Nearly 15 percent of [STATE]’s participants are missing food package code data. Please explain what accounts for these missing data.