Past project · Medically Tailored Groceries / Produce Prescriptions
Wholesome Wave
Poor diet is among the top risk factors for both overall disease burden and health disparities in the United States (U.S.) and around the world, leading to substantial preventable chronic diseases, years of life lost, and health care spending. In our prior wor…
Medically Tailored Groceries / Produce PrescriptionsCancerCardiovascular DiseaseIntervention Study / Evaluation
About this work
Poor diet is among the top risk factors for both overall disease burden and health disparities in the United States (U.S.) and around the world, leading to substantial preventable chronic diseases, years of life lost, and health care spending. In our prior work, we have estimated that more than 300,000 deaths per year from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes and 80,000 new cancer cases per year in the U.S. are directly attributable to suboptimal diet.
The direct U.S. medical costs of CVD, diabetes, and cancer alone exceed $740 billion in 2015. And these burdens disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, including low-income Americans, minorities, and the elderly.
Growing evidence indicates that health care systems can provide a key role in addressing determinants of health including food insecurity and poor nutrition. Produce prescription programs are among the most promising interventions, wherein health care providers providing guidance on and economic incentives for access to healthy foods for patient populations with food insecurity and diet-related chronic health conditions. A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by Bhat et al reported an increase in fruits and vegetable consumption by 0.79 servings/day and reduction in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) by 0.81%, pooling results from five studies published prior to 2020.
More recently, two studies (Veldheer et al 2021; Bryce et al 2021) using pre and post intervention comparisons showed 1…
Why this matters
Produce prescriptions are projected to prevent about 126,000 cardiovascular events over ten years among U.S. adults with diabetes and food insecurity. Work like this tests how to deliver them where people already are, so the evidence can reach scale.
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