December 23, 2024

Is “Food as Medicine” a Game Changer for Diabetes?

“We do understand that food insecurity is problematic for people, so attending to that by itself has its own benefits, however we still need to figure out how best to improve health at the exact same time if it is going to be attended to through the health care system,” Doyle adds.Research Methodology and Participant DemographicsThe paper, “The Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” was published just recently in JAMA Internal Medicine.The authors are Doyle; Marcella Alsan, a teacher of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Nicholas Skelley, a predoctoral research partner at MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative; Yutong Lu, a predoctoral technical associate at MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative; and John Cawley, a teacher in the Department of Economics and the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and co-director of Cornells Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities.Study Execution and ResultsTo carry out the study, the scientists partnered with a big health care provider in the Mid-Atlantic area of the U.S., which has actually established food-as-medicine programs. In the first place, he notes, there could be some fundamental reversion to the mean in play– some people in the control group with high blood sugar levels were most likely to improve that even without being registered in the program.Future Directions and the Role of Meal Preparation”If you examine individuals on a bad health trajectory, many will naturally enhance as they take steps to move away from this risk zone, such as moderate modifications in diet plan and workout,” Doyle says.Moreover, because the healthy consuming program was established by a health care supplier remaining engaged with all the individuals, people in the control group may have still benefitted from medical engagement and hence fared much better than a control group without such health care access.It is also possible the COVID-19 pandemic, unfolding throughout the experiments time frame, affected the outcomes in some way, although outcomes were similar when they examined results prior to the pandemic.”Reference: “Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Joseph Doyle, Marcella Alsan, Nicholas Skelley, Yutong Lu and John Cawley, 26 December 2023, JAMA Internal Medicine.DOI: 10.1001/ jamainternmed.2023.6670 Support for the research study came from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); and the MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative.

A brand-new health care program trying to deal with diabetes by ways of improved nutrition shows a very modest effect, according to the very first fully randomized medical trial on the subject.The study, co-authored by MIT health care economist Joseph Doyle of the MIT Sloan School of Management, tracks individuals in an ingenious program that supplies healthy meals in order to deal with diabetes and food insecurity at the very same time.”We do understand that food insecurity is problematic for individuals, so resolving that by itself has its own advantages, but we still require to figure out how best to improve health at the same time if it is going to be resolved through the health care system,” Doyle adds.Research Methodology and Participant DemographicsThe paper, “The Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” was released recently in JAMA Internal Medicine.The authors are Doyle; Marcella Alsan, a professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Nicholas Skelley, a predoctoral research study partner at MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative; Yutong Lu, a predoctoral technical partner at MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative; and John Cawley, a teacher in the Department of Economics and the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and co-director of Cornells Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities.Study Execution and ResultsTo conduct the research study, the scientists partnered with a big health care provider in the Mid-Atlantic area of the U.S., which has actually developed food-as-medicine programs. In the first location, he keeps in mind, there could be some basic reversion to the mean in play– some individuals in the control group with high blood sugar levels were most likely to improve that even without being enrolled in the program.Future Directions and the Role of Meal Preparation”If you take a look at individuals on a bad health trajectory, many will naturally improve as they take steps to move away from this threat zone, such as moderate modifications in diet and workout,” Doyle says.Moreover, since the healthy eating program was developed by a health care company remaining engaged with all the participants, individuals in the control group may have still benefitted from medical engagement and thus fared much better than a control group without such health care access.It is likewise possible the COVID-19 pandemic, unfolding throughout the experiments time frame, impacted the outcomes in some way, although results were similar when they took a look at outcomes prior to the pandemic.”Reference: “Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Joseph Doyle, Marcella Alsan, Nicholas Skelley, Yutong Lu and John Cawley, 26 December 2023, JAMA Internal Medicine.DOI: 10.1001/ jamainternmed.2023.6670 Support for the study came from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); and the MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative.