Food is Medicine Interventions to Improve Health

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Nutrition Science
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Barriers to healthy eating cause significant health problems.
• Clinicians lack effective tools to help patients overcome these barriers.
• Food is medicine (FIM) interventions offer a novel approach.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the rationale and types of FIM interventions.
• To review key studies and developments in the FIM field.
• To discuss large-scale FIM implementation, particularly within Medicaid.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of FIM interventions.
• Analysis of studies on clinical outcomes and healthcare utilization.
• Examination of large-scale FIM program evaluations.

Main Results:

• FIM interventions demonstrate promising benefits for clinical outcomes and healthcare utilization.
• Evidence includes meaningful limitations and unexpected findings.
• Large-scale FIM implementation, especially in Medicaid, shows varied effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• FIM interventions have potential but require further research.
• Contextual factors influence FIM study effectiveness.
• Implementation learnings can guide future FIM research and practice.