TOPLINE:

A 12-week program that home-delivered medically tailored groceries and provided diabetes self-management education and support materials led to a clinically meaningful reduction in A1c levels among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who experienced food insecurity.

METHODOLOGY:

• Food insecurity reduces access to nutritious foods, worsening diet-related conditions like T2D. “Food Is Medicine” interventions seek to provide nutritious, diabetes-supportive food to people experiencing food insecurity.
• This study assessed the impact of a medically tailored, home-delivered, grocery program on glycemic control and diet quality among 101 participants with T2D who experienced food insecurity (mean age, 57.1 years; 67.3% women); participants were recruited in Northwest Arkansas from August 2021 to February 2023.
• Study participants received weekly home delivery for 12 weeks of T2D-appropriate food boxes aligned with the American Diabetes Association guidelines, plus educational materials on diabetes self-management in English, Spanish, or Marshallese.
• Data were collected before and after the intervention and included A1c measurements and diet quality (measured using the Healthy Eating Index [HEI]-2015).

TAKEAWAY:

• The mean A1c level decreased by 0.56% after the intervention compared with before the intervention (P = .01).
• Each 1-year increase in age was associated with a 0.04% decrease in the average A1c level (P = .04).
• No significant change in HEI-2015 scores was observed between before and after the intervention (P = .47).
• Among 69 postsurvey respondents, 85.5% agreed that the program helped them control their diabetes, and 94% reported being satisfied with the food provided.

IN PRACTICE:

“Practitioners involved in the design and implementation of FIM [Food Is Medicine] programs may consider strategies to improve engagement with the intervention to achieve the greatest impact on nutrition and health outcomes,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Eliza Short, PhD, Center for Nutrition and Health Impact, Omaha, Nebraska. It was published online in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

LIMITATIONS:

This study lacked a control group, so it could not be ruled out that factors other than the intervention caused the decrease in A1c levels.There was no mechanism to determine whether the observed benefits were due to the food deliveries or diabetes education. In addition, the study collected limited data on whether participants consumed the delivered food or used the educational materials.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by the Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases program of the US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with additional funding from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Translational Research Institute. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.