Enhancing Food as Medicine Interventions for Food Insecure Postpartum Women in Central Texas

May 20, 2024 updated by: Alexandra van den Berg, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
The purpose of this study is to compare the short-term and long term impacts of Food is the Best Medicine (FBM)-Virtual on diet quality, food security status, breastfeeding rates, mental health status, rates of home cooking, and rationing coping strategies relative to FBM-In Person among food insecure, postpartum women and to compare implementation outcomes across the FBM-Virtual and FBM-In Person using process data collected from the participants, Community Health Worker (CHW)s, and partner organizations.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
100

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • food insecure
  • to communicate in English or Spanish.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • not living within the food produce zip code delivery radius
  • having any dietary allergies.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: FBM-In person
Other: FBM-In person
Participants will receive two home visits by a CHW. Each home visit will last about 30 minutes, during which the CHW will assist the woman with community resources and help with enrolling in any state or federal nutrition and medical programs. Furthermore, the participants will be given access to a private Facebook group for nutrition, health education, and social support. Home visits will occur during the second and fifth weeks of the study.
Other: home delivered food boxes
Participants will receive weekly deliveries of a box containing fresh produce and staple goods (approximately 5 meals a week), culturally tailored meals (6 meals a week), and prepared fruit, vegetable and grain-forward meal kits (4 units a week) plus standard nutrition education materials consisting of recipes inside of the boxes. Each participant will receive one box for eight consecutive weeks.
Experimental: FBM-Virtual
Other: home delivered food boxes
Participants will receive weekly deliveries of a box containing fresh produce and staple goods (approximately 5 meals a week), culturally tailored meals (6 meals a week), and prepared fruit, vegetable and grain-forward meal kits (4 units a week) plus standard nutrition education materials consisting of recipes inside of the boxes. Each participant will receive one box for eight consecutive weeks.
Other: FBM-Virtual
Participants will receive access to a virtual platform which will have information on national, state, and local food and medical resources, as well as local community resources, and will have access to a private Facebook group for nutrition, health education, and social support.
Active Comparator: home delivered food
Other: home delivered food boxes
Participants will receive weekly deliveries of a box containing fresh produce and staple goods (approximately 5 meals a week), culturally tailored meals (6 meals a week), and prepared fruit, vegetable and grain-forward meal kits (4 units a week) plus standard nutrition education materials consisting of recipes inside of the boxes. Each participant will receive one box for eight consecutive weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in level of household food insecurity experienced as assessed by the US Household Food Security questionnaire
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
This is an 6 item questionnaire . Raw score will be reported and score ranges from 0-6. Raw score of 0-1 shows high or marginal food security, raw score of 2- indicates low food security and raw score of 5-6 shows very low food insecurity.
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Change in quality of diet as assessed by number of times participants ate certain food items in the past month as reported in the questionnaire
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention

This data will be reported categorically for 14 different food items as follows:

  1. fruit
  2. green leafy or lettuce salad
  3. fried potatoes
  4. other kind of potatoes
  5. refired/baked/ cooked beans
  6. other vegetables that were not deep-fried
  7. salsa made with tomato
  8. pizza
  9. tomato sauce
  10. lean protein
  11. plant-based protein
  12. brown rice or other cooked whole grains
  13. whole grain bread
  14. regular soda/pop
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Number of participants that initiated breastfeeding as assessed by the pre test questionnaire
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Total duration of breastfeeding time as assessed by the post test questionnaires
Time Frame: end of study (after 8 weeks of food delivery boxes)
end of study (after 8 weeks of food delivery boxes)
Total duration of breastfeeding time as assessed by the post test questionnaires
Time Frame: 3 months follow up
3 months follow up
Change in number of participants who showed signs of depression as assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
This is a 10 item questionnaire , range of score for each item is 0-3 for a total score range of 0-30, score above 12 is worse outcome
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Change in number of cooked meals as assessed by the number of home cooked meals made from scratch during the past week
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Participant will be asked how often he/she or anyone else in the family prepared breakfast from scratch during the past week, lunch from scratch during the past week or dinner from scratch during the past week. The responses from the 3 items will be summed to determine the number of home cooked meals during past week.
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Change in financial stress as assessed by the financial stress questionnaire
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Scores for three questions from the Financial Stress Scale will be used and each will be scored from 0(never) to 6(Always) for a score range of 0-18; 18 being highest level of financial stress.
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
Percentage of participants that face financial challenges as assessed by the Financial Self-Efficacy Scale
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention
A single item from the Financial Self Efficacy scale will be used.
Baseline, immediately after intervention (within 2 weeks of completion of intervention), three months after end of intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
American Heart Association

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Alexandra van den Berg, MPH, PhD, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
January 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 31, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
June 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 20, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 20, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
May 24, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
May 24, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 20, 2024

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • HSC-SPH-23-0795
  • 24FIM1264463 (Other Grant/Funding Number: American Heart Association)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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