Comparing the Effectiveness of Two Produce Prescription Approaches On Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Food Security, While Exploring Implementation Outcomes Such as Reach, Implementation, Sustainability, and Cost (NutriConnect)

January 14, 2026 updated by: Washington University School of Medicine

NutriConnect: Enhancing Health and Food Security Through Sustainable Solutions and Partnerships

The produce prescription program is one type of food is medicine (FIM) programs, where healthcare providers "prescribe" fruits and vegetables (F&V) to patients with low household incomes, experience food insecurity, and one or more diet-related diseases. NutriConnect seeks to compare the effectiveness of two produce prescription approaches on F&V intake and food security: credit to Rewards account (NutriConnect Credit) vs. produce box delivery (NutriConnect Delivery), while exploring implementation outcomes such as reach, sustainability, implementation, and cost.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The Produce Prescription Program, as one type of Food is Medicine (FIM) initiatives, involves healthcare providers prescribing fruits and vegetables to patients often have low incomes, food insecurity, and diet-related illnesses. Previous systematic reviews have shown that these programs are associated with increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, improved diet quality, reduced food insecurity, and better management of diet-related diseases. However, the diversity in study designs, small sample sizes, and varied intervention intensities have limited the conclusive understanding of the full effects of these programs. Despite their potential benefits, critical gaps persist, notably in identifying the most effective strategies for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients. Additionally, challenges surrounding scalability, implementation, and sustainability hinder the widespread adoption of these programs.

To address these gaps, the NutriConnect team employs a Designing for Dissemination and Sustainability (D4DS) approach informed by the PRISM/RE-AIM framework. This involves early engagement of key partners crucial for scalability and sustainability. The study team initiated a collaborative consortium comprising Washington University in St. Louis, BJC Healthcare, and Schnucks (regional grocery chain). NutriConnect integrates multilevel, multicomponent intervention components, including in-hospital social needs screening, produce prescription, grocery rewards, and a health and wellness program, all aimed at promoting better nutrition and health in the community. NutriConnect seeks to compare the effectiveness of two produce prescription approaches on fruits and vegetables intake and food security: credit to Rewards account (NutriConnect Credit) vs. produce box delivery (NutriConnect Delivery), while exploring implementation outcomes, with the following aims.

Aim 1. Evaluate and compare the effectiveness of NutriConnect Credit with NutriConnect Delivery on changes in fruit and vegetable intake, food security, and self-reported health status.

Aim 2. Explore the scalability, sustainability, and determinants of the NutriConnect program guided by PRISM/RE-AIM, aiming to identify factors crucial for future scale-up.

Aim 3. Determine the implementation costs of NutriConnect using time-driven activity-based costing approach.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

126

Phase

  • 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 Locations

  • United States
    • Missouri
      • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63110
        • Barnes Jewish Hospital

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

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Adults (>= 18 years)
  2. Received care at either medical floors or observation unit at the Bares Jewish Hospital (BJH), and discharged to home.
  3. Being screened positive for food or financial insecurity.
  4. Have elevated cardiovascular risk, i.e., self-reported diabetes, hypertension, hyperglycemia, or calculated BMI meeting obesity.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Does not have competence to provide informed consent.
  2. Is under suicide watch.
  3. Is in police custody.
  4. In hospice or palliative care.
  5. Not have a stable home.
  6. Is pregnant.

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: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Usual Care (Control)
Patient is screened for food or financial insecurity, if positive, social worker will refer him/her to community service programs.
Experimental: NutriConnect Credit
Patient is given $20 credit to their Schnucks (grocery) Reward account every other week for F&V shopping.
Other: Product prescription program- NutriConnect Credit
Patient is given $20 credit to their Schnucks (grocery) Rewards account every other week for F&V shopping. The Rewards credit can be used either through the Schnucks App or in store.
Experimental: NutriConnect Delivery
Patient receives produce (F&V) box (with equivalent $20 value) delivered to home every other week.
Other: Product prescription program- NutriConnect Delivery
Patient receives produce (F&V) box (equivalent $20 value) delivered to home every other week. The items in the box will be pre-selected by Schnucks and the NutriConnect dieticians.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
change in F&V intake
Time Frame: 6-month
pre- and post-changes in F&V consumption (cups/day, continuous).
6-month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Household food insecurity
Time Frame: 6-month
pre- and post-changes in household food insecurity (binary). 6-item USDA Food Security Survey, minimum value = 0, maximum value = 6, lower the score means higher the food security
6-month

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-reported health status
Time Frame: 6-month
pre- and post-changes in self-reported health status (5-point Likert scale, ordinal). 5-point Likert Scale: minimum value = 1, maximum value= 5, higher score means better outcome (or strongly agree).
6-month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Collaborators

BJC HealthCare
Schnuck Markets, Inc.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jing Li, MD, DrPH, MS, Washington University School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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)

March 25, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 23, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

October 23, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 8, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 15, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

February 16, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

January 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 202401096
  • 24FIM1268045 (Other Grant/Funding Number: American Heart Association)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The data includes self-reported socio-demographic information, data on fruit and vegetable intake, food security status, and health status. Qualitative data includes implementation process, experiences and perspectives of both the intervention delivers and recipients, and other implementation-related factors and outcomes. The dataset includes de-identified quantitative data sets, transcriptions of qualitative interviews, codebooks for all qualitative and quantitative data, descriptive documentation of variables along with their relationships to outcomes, as well as the analytic plan and program.

For the purposes of sharing and disseminating, all direct identifiers and any indirect identifiers that could be used in conjunction with other publicly available information to identify individuals will be removed from the study data. All transcriptions of focus group will also be void of any personal identifiers.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will become available after 06/30/2025, and for 2 years.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

research protocol review and approval

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

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.

Clinical Trials on Food Insecurity

Clinical Trials on Product prescription program- NutriConnect Credit

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Ghana

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe