Effect of Medically Tailored Meals on Clinical Outcomes in Recently Hospitalized High-Risk Adults.

BACKGROUND: Inability to adhere to nutritional recommendations is common and linked to worse outcomes in patients with nutrition-sensitive conditions. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether medically tailored meals (MTMs) improve outcomes in recently discharged adults with nutrition-sensitive conditions compared with usual care. RESEARCH DESIGN: Remote pragmatic randomized trial. SUBJECTS: Adults with heart failure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease being discharged home between April 27, 2020, and June 9, 2021, from 5 hospitals within an integrated health care delivery system. MEASURES: Participants were prerandomized to 10 weeks of MTMs (with or without virtual nutritional counseling) compared with usual care. The primary outcome was all-cause hospitalization within 90 days after discharge. Exploratory outcomes included all-cause and cause-specific health care utilization and all-cause death within 90 days after discharge. RESULTS: A total of 1977 participants (MTMs: n=993, with 497 assigned to also receive virtual nutritional counseling; usual care: n=984) were enrolled. Compared with usual care, MTMs did not reduce all-cause hospitalization at 90 days after discharge [adjusted hazard ratio, aHR: 1.02, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.86-1.21]. In exploratory analyses, MTMs were associated with lower mortality (aHR: 0.65, 95% CI, 0.43-0.98) and fewer hospitalizations for heart failure (aHR: 0.53, 95% CI, 0.33-0.88), but not for any emergency department visits (aHR: 0.95, 95% CI, 0.78-1.15) or diabetes-related hospitalizations (aHR: 0.75, 95% CI, 0.31-1.82). No additional benefit was observed with virtual nutritional counseling. CONCLUSIONS: Provision of MTMs after discharge did not reduce risk of all-cause hospitalization in adults with nutrition-sensitive conditions. Additional large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to definitively determine the impact of MTMs on survival and cause-specific health care utilization in at-risk individuals.

Assessing the Health Outcomes of the Food Access Pilot Project: An Evaluation of a Medically Supportive Food Support Program for People Living with HIV in Rural California Counties.

Food insecurity disproportionately affects rural communities and people living with HIV (PLHIV). The Food Access Pilot Project (FAPP) was a California state-funded program that provided home-delivered, medically supportive meals via online meal vendors to food-insecure PLHIV in three rural counties. We performed longitudinal, retrospective analyses of FAPP participant data (n = 158; 504 and 460 person-time observations for viral load and CD4 count, respectively) over 36 months from a Ryan White client management database. Pre-post analyses demonstrated increased prevalence of food security and CD4 ≥ 500 between baseline and 12 months. Population-averaged trends using generalized estimating equations adjusted for participant demographics demonstrated increased odds of viral suppression and CD4 ≥ 500, and increased CD4 count (cells/mm3) for every six months of program enrollment. Home-delivered, medically supportive meals may improve food security status, HIV viral suppression, and immune health for low-income PLHIV in rural settings.