Produce prescriptions could enhance cardiometabolic health, by growing fruits and vegetables (F&V) consumption as well as food insecurity. Effects on clinical outcomes as well as the health of individuals haven’t been evaluated in a large multisite assessments.

Methods

The multisite evaluation, both post and pre-evaluation, used personal-level information from 22 pharmacy locations across twelve US states between 2014 and 2020. There was no prior evaluation of the programs. The study involved 3881 people (2064 adults over 18 years and 1817 young children between 2 and 17 years) who had, or were susceptible to poor health in the cardiometabolic area, who were who were recruited from clinics catering to poor neighborhoods. Programmes offered incentives for financial assistance to buy F&V from grocery stores and farmers’ markets (median $63/month; time of 4 to 10 months). Surveys analyzed F&V consumption as well as food security as well as self-reported health. Glycated hemoglobin levels, blood pressure, the body mass index (BMI) and BMI Z-score were assessed at clinics. Multilevel models that were adjusted included clustering according to program.

Results

Following a median in 6.0 months F&V consumption increased to 0.85 (95 percent CI, 0.68-1.02) and 0.26 (95 percent 95% CI, 0.06-0.45) cups per daily for children and adults as well. The probability of being food inadequate decreased by one third (odds ratio of 0.63 [0.52-0.760.63 [0.52-0.76]) and chances of achieving a higher level of self-reported health improved in adults (odds ratio of 1.62 [1.30-2.022.22) as well as children (odds ratio of 2.37 [1.70-3.313.31). In adults with hemoglobin levels >=6.5%, the glycated hemoglobin decreased by -0.29 percentage points of age (-0.42 up to -0.16) in adults who suffer from hypertension, systolic as well as diastolic blood pressures decreased by -8.38 millimeters Hg (-10.13 from -6.62) as well as -4.94 millimeters (-5.96 from -3.92) as well as among people who have obesity or overweight BMI declined to -0.36 kilograms/millimeter (-0.64 from -0.09). The BMI of children did not change from -0.01 (-0.06 up to 0.04).

Conclusions

In this multisite, large review, the use of produce was connected with substantial improvements in F&V consumption as well as food security and overall health both for children and adults, as well as clinically significant improvement in hemoglobin glycated blood pressure, blood sugar, and BMI in adults suffering from poor cardiovascular health.

Original Source: AHA Journals