Evaluating an Enhanced Home-delivered Meal Program on Older Adults' Health and Well-being

Summary

Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island (MOWRI), in partnership with the University of Connecticut (UConn), will implement and evaluate an enhanced version of its Home-Delivered Meals Program (HDMP). The project goal is to implement and test the effectiveness of an enhanced Home-Delivered Meals (HDM) service delivery approach. The enhanced approach includes community health worker (CHW) interactions and supplemental healthy grocery bags to address diet quality, food and nutrition security, loneliness, and health-related quality of life for older adults. MOWRI participants at the highest nutritional risk will be randomized to receive standard or enhanced services in order to test the effect of the intervention on health-related outcomes. Anticipated outcomes for individuals receiving enhanced services are improvements in measures of diet quality, food and nutrition security, loneliness, and health-related quality of life compared with those receiving standard HDM services.

Conditions

• Diet, Healthy
• Food Insecurity
• Loneliness
• Quality of Life

Interventions

OTHER

Home-delivered meals

Delivery of prepared meals compliant with Older Americans Act nutrition programs guidelines

OTHER

Wellness check and socialization visit

At-home delivery with opportunity for driver observation and interaction

BEHAVIORAL

Community Health Worker calls

Calls from a certified Community Health Worker (CHW) to assess needs, identify gaps in care and resources, and then support health and resource coordination

OTHER

Supplemental grocery bag

Monthly delivery of a grocery bag containing a variety of nutritionally balanced foods and educational materials

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Department of Health and Human Services

  collaborator FED

• Meals on Wheels Rhode Island (MOWRI)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Connecticut

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Caitlin Caspi, ScD · University of Connecticut

• Kim Gans, PhD · University of Connecticut

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-06-20

Primary Completion

2027-09-30

Completion

2028-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations