The Effectiveness of Recipe4Health: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation

• Published in: American journal of preventive medicine 2024-11
• Main Authors: Rosas, Lisa G., Chen, Steven, Xiao, Lan, Baiocchi, Mike, Ng, Elliot, Emmert-Aronson, Benjamin O., Chen, Wei-Ting, Thompson-Lastad, Ariana, Martinez, Erica, Perez, Josselyn, Melendez, Eric, Markle, Elizabeth, Radtke, Marcela D., Tester, June
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0749-3797; 1873-2607; 1873-2607
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2024.10.020

Food as Medicine is increasingly recognized as an important strategy for addressing the related challenges of food insecurity and nutrition-related chronic conditions. Food as Medicine refers to integration of food-based nutrition interventions into healthcare to prevent and treat disease. However, there is limited evidence to understand the effectiveness of Food as Medicine. Recipe4Health (R4H), a comprehensive Food as Medicine program, was implemented in 4 Federally Qualified Health Centers in California for patients with food insecurity and/or nutrition-related chronic conditions. Patients were referred by a healthcare provider to a “Food Farmacy” (16 weekly produce home deliveries) alone or in combination with a “Behavioral Pharmacy” (16 weekly group visits). A quasi-experimental study with pre/post surveys (4 months) and propensity score matched controls for Electronic Health Record outcomes over 12 months was conducted. Participants were 2,643 R4H patients and 2,643 controls identified from 1/2020 to 12/2022; data were analyzed from 2023 to 2024. There was a significant increase in produce consumption from baseline to 4 months (0.41 servings/day [0.11, 0.72], p=0.007) in the Food Farmacy in combination with Behavioral Pharmacy. Compared to controls, there were improvements in non-HDL cholesterol for the Food Farmacy alone (–17.1 mg/dL [–26.9, –7.2], p