Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine

The purpose of this study is to adapt existing Nourish Program curriculum for synchronous virtual delivery,to implement adapted virtual Culinary Medicine (CM)curriculum among target population, to assess if program participation improves participant dietary behaviors, nutrition knowledge, and cooking skills and behaviors above standard of care, to assess if program participation improves patient levels of HbA1c, Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure, HDL, LDL and Triglycerides above standard of care and to determine the feasibility and reproducibility of virtual synchronous CM classes in patients with diabetes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Diabetes
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Virtual Culinary Medicine

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 104
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 66 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• type 2 diabetes and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) >7.0
• receiving care at Sanitas Medical Center clinics in August 2021 - August 2023
• English speaking or Spanish speaking.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients without the technological support needed to participate in the program (e.g., reliable internet and device - cell phone, tablet or laptop);
• Patients with terminal or late-stage conditions (e.g., advanced stage chronic kidney disease);
• Patients with uncontrolled mental disorder that interferes with participation in active programming;
• Patients with physical impairment that interferes with participation in active programming

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• 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: Virtual Culinary Medicine

Behavioral: Virtual Culinary Medicine; The virtual curriculum will include five 90-minute sessions (to be held weekly or bi-weekly). Participants will cook and engage virtually (with video and sound on) from their home kitchens via the digital platform. Participants will also be expected to shop for groceries ahead of the sessions to participate in the program. A gift card will be provided for groceries ($20 per class = $100 total).Asynchronous virtual educational content (cooking skills videos, animated nutrition education videos, and additional recipes) will be provided to engage and retain participants beyond initial sessions. Recipes will provide enough food for a family of four. clinic patients

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Healthy Food Servings by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 3 items that are scored from 1 [None] to 6 [4 servings or more] for a maximum score of 18, a higher number indicating a better outcome.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)
Change in Typical food consumption behaviors by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 7 items that are scored from 1 [Not at all] to 5 [More than once a day] for a maximum score of 35, a higher number indicating better outcome.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)
Change in Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 9 items that are scored from 1 [Strongly Disagree] to 5 [Strongly Agree] for a maximum score of 45, a higher number indicating more perceived barriers.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)
Change in Shopping, cooking, and eating behaviors by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 9 items that are scored from 1 [Never] to 5 [Always], for a maximum score of 45, with a higher number indicating more ideal shopping, cooking and eating behaviors that align with program goals.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)
Change in Diabetes Management by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 18 items. The first 16 items that are scored from 1 [Does not apply to me] to 4 [Applies to me very much] and the remaining 2 items are dichotomous scored [Yes=1] to [No=0], for a maximum score of 68, with a higher number indicates a better diabetes self-management.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)
Change in cooking self-efficacy by the Nourishing the Community Through Culinary Medicine survey (NCCM)	This consists of 10 items that are scored from 1 [Not sure at all] to 5 [Extremely sure], for a maximum of 50, with a higher number indicating more self-efficacy. Five items ask about self-efficacy before the program, and five ask about self-efficacy after the program.	Baseline, post intervention (upto 10 weeks after baseline)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Change in Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in Body Mass Index	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in systolic Blood Pressure	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in diastolic Blood Pressure	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in High-density lipoprotein (HDL)	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in low-density lipoprotein (LDL)	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)
Change in Triglyceride	baseline (within 90 days of starting the NCCM program), at program completion (within 90 days of NCCM program completion), and post 6-months completion of NCCM (within 90 days of 6-months completion of NCCM)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Natalia I Heredia, PhD., MPH, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 15, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): December 15, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 14, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 14, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): November 22, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 17, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 14, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HSC-SPH-21-0555

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
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No