The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if providing healthy meal kits to food insecure families can help lessen the social and emotional impacts of food insecurity on kids and their caregivers in rural Maine. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Is receiving healthy meal kits delivered to homes feasible and acceptable to rural Maine families? 2. Does receiving meal kits (along with an app to help learn how to cook the food) improve food insecurity and diet quality in rural Maine families? 3. Does receiving meal kits (along with an app to help learn how to cook the food) improve family function in rural Maine families? We will look at caregivers' stress, family conflict, household chaos, and child emotional-behavioral symptoms. Participants will: 1. Recieve and prepare a dietitian-designed meal kit with 10 meals per week for 4 weeks. 2. Receive free culinary medicine education via an app that they will continue to have access to after the study ends. 3. Complete a 1-1.5 hour virtual visit at the beginning of and end of the study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
40
This intervention will involve four phases: (1) a baseline assessment; (2) a 7-day monitoring phase, (3) a 30-day intervention phase in which all households receive weekly meal kits delivered to their home in addition to mobile culinary medicine education; and (4) a follow-up assessment.
MaineHealth
Portland, Maine, United States
USDA Household Food Security Survey
An 18-item questionnaire designed to assess a household's level of food insecurity during the past year, including questions related to both worry and insufficiency in relation to both adults and children living in the household
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Rapid Prime Diet Quality Screener
A 13-item diet screener that assesses the frequency with which various categories of food were consumed over the past month (e.g., processed meats, vegetables, soft drinks).
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale
A 15-item, caregiver-report questionnaire that assesses the level of environmental confusion in the home
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
24-Hour Food Recall
A structured assessment intended to capture detailed information about all foods, beverages, and dietary supplements consumed by the participant in the past 24 hours. The assessment queries about the time of day, portion size, and preparation methods of each food item.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Cooking and Food Provisioning Action Scale
A 28-question validated questionnaire assessing food agency in three separate categories (self-efficacy, structure, and attitude).
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Parenting Stress Index - Short Form
A 36-item caregiver report assesses three domains of stress (parental distress, dysfunctional parent-child interactions, and difficult child).
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Perceived Stress Scale
A 10-item, self-report measure that assesses the degree to which different situations are appraised as stressful, unpredictable, and uncontrollable.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Alabama Parenting Questionnaire - Short Form
A 9-item, caregiver-report measure of parenting practices that assesses domains of positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision, and inconsistent discipline
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Family Environment Scale - Fourth Edition
A self-report assessment designed to assess different aspects of family functioning via 90 true or false questions. In order to reduce participant burden, only items from the Cohesion, Conflict, Organization and Control subscale will be administered.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Child Behavior Checklist
The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a caregiver-report measure that consist of 120 problem items rated on a three-point scale (0 = not true, 1 = somewhat or sometimes true, 2 = very true or often true) that yield empirically derived subscales related to different psychological symptoms and competence in several areas of functioning. Subscales are consistent across age, gender, informant, and culture and have test-retest reliabilities between 0.74 and 0.95 and Cronbach alphas between 0.79 and 0.97. The Brief Problem Monitor is a 19-item caregiver-report measure with parallel items and scales to the CBCL designed for assessing change over time.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Adult Self-Report
A self-report inventory on which caregivers rated the extent to which they have experienced 126 psychological problems during the past six months on a three-point scale 1 = somewhat or sometimes true, 2 = very true or often true). Items form empirically validated subscales that are normed by age, gender, and culture.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
PROMIS Fatigue Profile
16-item, self-report measure that assesses fatigue intensity and its effects on social functioning, cognition, and motivation.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule
A 20-item self-report measure that assesses the extent to which participants have various moods during a specified timeframe (i.e., 30 days) which yields independent positive and negative affect subscales.
Time frame: Baseline and 5 weeks
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.