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Evaluation of a COVID-influenced Curriculum to Address Food Insecurity in a Detroit Family Medicine Residency Clinic
CONTEXT: To date, numerous projects have demonstrated that an ongoing limited access to nutritionally dense food (i.e., “food insecurity”) plays a key role in the overall health and wellbeing of lower income at-risk populations. METHODS: For this 2019-2020 pilot project, the resident physician autho...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine Statewide Campus System
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7746036/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33655191 http://dx.doi.org/10.51894/001c.17649 |
Sumario: | CONTEXT: To date, numerous projects have demonstrated that an ongoing limited access to nutritionally dense food (i.e., “food insecurity”) plays a key role in the overall health and wellbeing of lower income at-risk populations. METHODS: For this 2019-2020 pilot project, the resident physician authors first created and administered a simple five-item questionnaire screening process to systematically identify food insecure patients in their metropolitan Detroit residency clinic. A sample of patients who had been identified as food insecure and pre-diabetic were then provided improved access to healthy foods, supplemented by a six-week program of nutritional education classes using a nationally recognized “Cooking Matters’’ six-week long curriculum with a licensed chef and nutrition educator RESULTS: After institutional review board approval, the authors enrolled a sample of 10 adults. The authors successfully measured both pre- and post-program Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1C) levels for all participants who completed the required course and subsequent clinic follow up visits. Using a series of initial non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank matched pair tests, post-program follow-up at three months revealed statistically significant reductions in documented HbA1c levels from baseline for six enrolled patients (W=1, Z = - 2.226, p = 0.026) and six-month follow up (i.e., more than four months after completion of the program) (W = 1, Z = - 2.060, p = 0.039). In post-program surveys, each respondent indicated that they found the class content to be generally beneficial to increase their nutritional knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: In the authors’ setting, this food insecurity program has subsequently led to a more formal screening process to evaluate and identify food insecure patients. The authors discuss the scheduling difficulties they experienced from the COVID-19 pandemic for their sample patients. However, these pilot results suggest that prolonged benefits may require ongoing “virtual” teaching sessions with pre-diabetic patients to address the complex factors influencing food insecurity levels identified in similar inner-city settings. |
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