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Published on: October 22, 2018
Cost analysis and cost effectiveness of a subsidized community supported agriculture intervention for low-income
Jennifer A Garner1,2, Karla L Hanson3, Stephanie B Jilcott Pitts4
1School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Background:
The food system has a dynamic influence on disparities in food security and diet-related chronic disease. Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, in which households receive weekly shares of produce from a local farmer during the growing season, have been examined as a possible food systems-based approach for improving diet and health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to estimate the cost of implementing and participating in a multi-component subsidized community supported agriculture intervention and calculate cost-effectiveness based on diet and food security impacts.
Methods:
Using data from the Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids (F3HK) randomized controlled trial in New York, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington (n = 305; 2016-2018), we estimated programmatic and participant costs and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) for caregivers' daily fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, skin carotenoids, and household food security from program and societal perspectives.
Results:
F3HK cost $2,439 per household annually ($1,884 in implementation-related expenses and $555 in participant-incurred costs). ICERs ranged from $1,507 to $2,439 per cup increase in caregiver's FV intake (depending on perspective, setting, and inclusion of juice); from $502 to $739 per one thousand unit increase in skin carotenoid score; and from $2,271 to $3,137 per household shifted out of food insecurity.
Conclusions:
Given the known public health, healthcare, and economic consequences of insufficient FV intake and living in a food insecure household, the costs incurred to support these positive shifts in individual- and household-level outcomes via a F3HK-like intervention may be deemed by stakeholders as a reasonable investment. This work helps to advance a critical body of literature on the cost-effectiveness of subsidized CSAs and other economic and food system interventions for the sake of evidence-based allocation of public health resources.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT02770196. Registered 5 April 2016. Retrospectively registered. https://www.
Clinicaltrials:
gov/ct2/show/NCT02770196 .
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