Virtual Teaching Kitchen

A Virtual Nutritional Education Delivered Through a Hospital Teaching Kitchen : a Proof-of-concept Study

A novel way of delivering nutritional education is through experiential learning in a teaching kitchen setting. Studies have shown that patients with metabolic syndrome who underwent a series of classes that featured nutrition recommendations and cooking classes had improved cardiac health.

Boston Medical Center (BMC) serves many underserved, low-income patients and has developed an innovative strategy to combat food insecurity and its consequences. This includes a preventative food pantry, a teaching kitchen, and a rooftop farm that provides fresh produce directly to the patients. The presence of this well-established three-pronged approach places our institution in an ideal position to develop a nutritional education intervention that supports experiential learning in this high-risk population.

Given the increasing focus on providing remote experiences to minimize contact and risk of infection with Sars-COV-2, the investigators are proposing a study where patients can benefit from nutritional education virtually. Patients with food insecurity and metabolic syndrome who utilize the food pantry will be invited to an educational program conducted on zoom. The program will be run by a registered dietician and chef who will deliver education virtually. Data will be collected using surveys, phone interviews, chart review, and home monitoring to test both the feasibility of running such an intervention virtually and to explore whether attending this program improves cardiac health in patients.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Metabolic Syndrome; Cardiac Health
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Nutritional education

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 16
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02118
      • Boston Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 30 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Users of the food pantry
• English speaking
• Must have one of following on their EPIC problem list (Diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or obstructive sleep apnea)
• Must have documented measured blood pressure, weight, height in the 12 months prior to the intervention.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with advanced dementia or uncontrolled psychiatric disease
• Non-english speakers since education delivered in the pilot in English
• Uncontrolled medical illness including hypertension, recent acute coronary syndrome, active malignancy or other condition that would make the subject unable to complete the study procedures

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; Subjects will undergo four nutritional educational classes, lasting 1 hour long, conducted over a two month period. These classes will occur on zoom and subjects will be located in their home.	Behavioral: Nutritional education; The curriculum for the four classes include understanding MyPlate guidelines, learn basic knife skills, meal prep, and plan, home farming and no-cook cooking.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
recruitment rates	based on number of people invited to participate, number recruited and consented and number attended	12 months
retention rates	based on attendance at each virtual educational session	12 months
facilitators for nutritional education	information will be obtained through qualitative interviews	12 months
barriers to nutritional education	information will be obtained through qualitative interviews	12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
knowledge of healthy foods	through qualitative interview	12 months
change in blood pressure (BP)	Baseline BP will be extracted from medical chart. Subjects will be provided with a home BP cuff. BP measurements performed by the patient will be recorded on the BP app. The 6 month follow BP will be extracted from the medical chart if available.	baseline, up to 6 months
change in blood glucose	Baseline blood glucose will be extracted from medical chart. Subjects will use their own glucometer to measure their blood glucose. glucose measurements performed by the patient will be recorded on the glucometer. The 6 month follow blood glucose will be extracted from the medical chart if available.	baseline, up to 6 months
change in hemoglobin A1c	Baseline will be extracted from the chart and 6 month will be extracted from the chart if available	baseline, 6 months
change in weight	Baseline weight will be extracted from medical chart. Subjects will be provided with a home scale. weight measurements performed by the patient will be recorded on the scale app. The 6 month follow weight will be extracted from the medical chart if available.	baseline, up to 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Naomi M Hamburg, MD, Dept of Cardiology, BU School of Medicine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 28, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 28, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): August 13, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 7, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 10, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): August 11, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 8, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 2, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: virtual nutritional education; teaching kitchen; food insecurity; zoom media
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Glucose Metabolism Disorders; Metabolic Diseases; Insulin Resistance; Hyperinsulinism; Metabolic Syndrome
• Other Study ID Numbers: H-39597

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