Healthy food prescription programs and their impact on dietary behavior and cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The enormous burden of diet-related chronic diseases has prompted interest in healthy food prescription programs. Yet, the impact of such programs remains unclear. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of healthy food prescription programs and evaluate their impact on dietary behavior and cardiometabolic parameters by meta-analysis. A systematic search was carried out in Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases since their inception to 3 January, 2020 without language restriction. A systematic search of interventional studies investigating the effect of healthy food prescription on diet quality and/or cardiometabolic risk factors including BMI, systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), or blood lipids was carried out. Thirteen studies were identified for inclusion, most of which were quasi-experimental (pre/post) interventions without a control group (n = 9). Pooled estimates revealed a 22% (95% CI: 12, 32; n = 5 studies, n = 1039 participants; I2 = 97%) increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, corresponding to 0.8 higher daily servings (95% CI: 0.2, 1.4; I2 = 96%). BMI decreased by 0.6 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.2, 1.1; I2 = 6.4%) and HbA1c by 0.8% (95% CI: 0.1, 1.6; I2 = 92%). No significant change was observed in other cardiometabolic parameters. These findings should be interpreted with caution in light of considerable heterogeneity, methodological limitations of the included studies, and moderate to very low certainty of evidence. Our results support the need for well-designed, large, randomized controlled trials in various settings to further establish the efficacy of healthy food prescription programs on diet quality and cardiometabolic health.
Date Issued
2021-09-01
Date Acceptance
2021-03-11
Citation
Advances in Nutrition, 2021, 12 (5), pp.1944-1956
ISSN
2156-5376
Publisher
American Society for Nutrition
Start Page
1944
End Page
1956
Journal / Book Title
Advances in Nutrition
Volume
12
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition.
This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Advances in Nutrition following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Saiuj Bhat, Daisy H Coyle, Kathy Trieu, Bruce Neal, Dariush Mozaffarian, Matti Marklund, Jason H Y Wu, Healthy Food Prescription Programs and their Impact on Dietary Behavior and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Advances in Nutrition, 2021 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmab039
This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Advances in Nutrition following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Saiuj Bhat, Daisy H Coyle, Kathy Trieu, Bruce Neal, Dariush Mozaffarian, Matti Marklund, Jason H Y Wu, Healthy Food Prescription Programs and their Impact on Dietary Behavior and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Advances in Nutrition, 2021 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmab039
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33999108
PII: 6274221
Subjects
chronic diseases
culinary medicine
diet
food insecurity
food is medicine
food pharmacy
food policy
global burden of disease
nutrition
public health
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2021-05-17