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“I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention

BACKGROUND: Food insecurity is associated with poor nutritional health outcomes. Prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables in healthcare settings may be an opportunity to link patients with community supports to promote healthy diets and improve food security. This mixed methods study evaluated the im...

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Autores principales: Heasley, Cole, Clayton, Becca, Muileboom, Jade, Schwanke, Anna, Rathnayake, Sujani, Richter, Abby, Little, Matthew
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8298943/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34301335
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00657-6
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author Heasley, Cole
Clayton, Becca
Muileboom, Jade
Schwanke, Anna
Rathnayake, Sujani
Richter, Abby
Little, Matthew
author_facet Heasley, Cole
Clayton, Becca
Muileboom, Jade
Schwanke, Anna
Rathnayake, Sujani
Richter, Abby
Little, Matthew
author_sort Heasley, Cole
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Food insecurity is associated with poor nutritional health outcomes. Prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables in healthcare settings may be an opportunity to link patients with community supports to promote healthy diets and improve food security. This mixed methods study evaluated the impacts of a fresh food prescription pilot program. METHODS: The study took place at two Community Health Centre locations in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Sixty food insecure patients with ≥1 cardio-metabolic condition or micronutrient deficiency participated in the intervention. Participants were prescribed 12 weekly vouchers to Community Food Markets. We conducted a one-group pre-post mixed-methods evaluation to assess changes in fruit and vegetable intake, self-reported health, food security, and perceived food environments. Surveys were conducted at baseline and follow-up and semi-structured interviews with participants were conducted following the intervention. RESULTS: Food security and fruit and vegetable consumption improved following the intervention. Food security scores increased by 1.6 points, on average (p < 0.001). Consumption of fruits and ‘other’ vegetables (cucumber, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, squashes, and vegetable juice) increased from baseline to follow-up (p < 0.05). No changes in self-reported physical or mental health were observed. Qualitative data suggested that the intervention benefited the availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and accommodation of healthy foods for participating households. CONCLUSIONS: Fresh food prescription programs may be a useful model for healthcare providers to improve patients’ food environments, healthy food consumption, and food security.
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spelling pubmed-82989432021-07-23 “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention Heasley, Cole Clayton, Becca Muileboom, Jade Schwanke, Anna Rathnayake, Sujani Richter, Abby Little, Matthew Arch Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Food insecurity is associated with poor nutritional health outcomes. Prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables in healthcare settings may be an opportunity to link patients with community supports to promote healthy diets and improve food security. This mixed methods study evaluated the impacts of a fresh food prescription pilot program. METHODS: The study took place at two Community Health Centre locations in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Sixty food insecure patients with ≥1 cardio-metabolic condition or micronutrient deficiency participated in the intervention. Participants were prescribed 12 weekly vouchers to Community Food Markets. We conducted a one-group pre-post mixed-methods evaluation to assess changes in fruit and vegetable intake, self-reported health, food security, and perceived food environments. Surveys were conducted at baseline and follow-up and semi-structured interviews with participants were conducted following the intervention. RESULTS: Food security and fruit and vegetable consumption improved following the intervention. Food security scores increased by 1.6 points, on average (p < 0.001). Consumption of fruits and ‘other’ vegetables (cucumber, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, squashes, and vegetable juice) increased from baseline to follow-up (p < 0.05). No changes in self-reported physical or mental health were observed. Qualitative data suggested that the intervention benefited the availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and accommodation of healthy foods for participating households. CONCLUSIONS: Fresh food prescription programs may be a useful model for healthcare providers to improve patients’ food environments, healthy food consumption, and food security. BioMed Central 2021-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8298943/ /pubmed/34301335 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00657-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Heasley, Cole
Clayton, Becca
Muileboom, Jade
Schwanke, Anna
Rathnayake, Sujani
Richter, Abby
Little, Matthew
“I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title_full “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title_fullStr “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title_full_unstemmed “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title_short “I was eating more fruits and veggies than I have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
title_sort “i was eating more fruits and veggies than i have in years”: a mixed methods evaluation of a fresh food prescription intervention
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8298943/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34301335
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00657-6
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