Food Rx + Community Health Worker

Overview

Food insecurity increases an individual's risk of poor health outcomes from some of the most costly and preventable chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes. The goal of this interventional pilot study is to see if primary care patients with self-reported food insecurity and a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes who receive 12 weekly home deliveries of fresh produce and diabetes-appropriate, shelf-stable food will have improved diabetes management. Half of these patients also received support from a community health worker (CHW) including nutrition and cooking education and tailored assistance accessing food resources and other social needs (example: transportation). The investigators hypothesized that participants receiving support from a CHW along with food boxes would have greater improvement in health outcomes compared to those participants who received only food.

Food Rx + CHW is a 3-month community health worker led medically tailored grocery intervention for patients with self-reported food insecurity and a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes at one academic medical center in the Midwest United States. Prior to contact and recruitment, eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive 12 weekly food deliveries and support from a CHW (Food + CHW group) or food deliveries only (Food-only group). All participants receive 12 weekly contactless deliveries of food. CHWs conduct three virtual study visits with participants to administer surveys and/or collect biomarker measurements at weeks 1, 12, and 24. No changes in the frequency of visits with the patient's provider are recommended. Virtual visit 1 involves the completion of study forms, assessment of household size for most meals, cultural preferences, food allergies, baseline cooking and eating habits, and assessment for knowledge and usage of local and/or federal food support programs. At week 12, participants use at home kits and devices (provided by the study) to measure and report their HbA1C, weight and blood pressure and complete post-intervention surveys on diet, knowledge and usage of food access programs and resources, and an anonymous feedback questionnaire on the strengths and opportunities for improvement in the program. At week 24, participants measured and reported their final HbA1C, weight and self-collected blood pressure result. In addition to food, participants in the Food + CHW group also received 7 weekly virtual sessions with a CHW (four 90-minute ZOOM counseling sessions and three 30 to 60-minute check-in phone calls). CHW sessions included diabetes-appropriate cooking and nutrition education and personalized benefit enrollment and linkage to existing food access resources (for example Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Double up Food Bucks, and Kansas Senior Farmers Market Vouchers). Each weekly food box contained approximately $8 worth of shelf-stable food items purchased from a local food bank (beans, canned vegetables and no-sugar added fruit, shelf-stable dairy products, canned tuna, and whole grains) and $25 of fresh produce (5-7 items including leafy greens, peppers, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, asparagus, apples, or strawberries). When seasonably available, fresh vegetables and fruit were sourced from local farmers via a local food hub. When local produce was not available, CHWs sourced produce from grocery stores.