Nutrition Intervention Optimization to Better Utilize Resources and Support Health

Summary

Not having enough food for each person in a household, also called food insecurity, makes it hard to eat a nutritious diet, maintain a healthy weight, and manage diabetes risk. Food banks and pantries provide direct food assistance that can mitigate food insecurity among people with lower income, however, people that utilize these organizations face time, resource, and physical constraints that limit their ability to consistently select and cook healthier meals and the organizations face budget constraints that limit their bandwidth for implementing nutrition programs. This research will test four innovative nutrition programs (nutritious prepared meals, medically tailored groceries in the form of meal kits, culinary medicine, motivational text messages) to identify which are the most effective for supporting healthy eating and food security and the most cost effective for organizations to implement, as an effort to reduce diabetes risk, improve diabetes self-management, and diminish health disparities.

Conditions

• Diabete Type 2
• Obesity & Overweight
• Nutritional Intervention
• Food Insecurity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Meal kits

Meal kits combine ingredients (e.g., chicken, tomatillo salsa verde, peppers, sweet potatoes) in a bag with a recipe that instructs how to make a healthier meal (e.g., Chicken Tomatillo Salsa Verde with Peppers and Sweet Potatoes).

BEHAVIORAL

No-prep meals

The meals were created to meet nutrition standards for people with or at-risk for cardiometabolic diseases. Each entree has at least one serving of proteins, whole grains, and two vegetables. Entrees are low in sodium and sugar and meet carbohydrate recommendations for people with diabetes.

BEHAVIORAL

Culinary nutrition classes

Participants randomly assigned to receive culinary nutrition classes will receive six-weeks of hybrid instruction from the Health Meets Food™ curriculum. Health Meets Food™ improves adherence to a nutritious diet, reduces food costs by encouraging more home food preparation, and reduces blood pressure and cholesterol among people with diabetes.

BEHAVIORAL

Text messages

Participants will receive four culturally tailored SMS and MMS texts per week with motivational messages and nutrition education developed and tested by Dr. Leng as part of the SANOS trial (R01MD012819) and slightly adapted to our community's food preferences identified through extensive preliminary research. Texts will be delivered in the participants preferred language (English/Spanish) and scheduled for their preferred time (e.g., AM/PM).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Tufts University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD, MPH · Tufts University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2027-01-31

Primary Completion

2031-02-28

Completion

2031-02-28

Countries

• United States

Study Locations