Introduction and Objective: Diabetes and prediabetes are prevalent in South Carolina and disproportionately affect African Americans. Lack of access to healthy food impedes control of glucose, blood pressure and weight. VeggieRx, a fruit/vegetable prescription program, aims to increase fresh produce intake to reduce A1C, blood pressure and weight, to mitigate food insecurity and lower healthcare costs. Methods: VeggieRx enrolls patients aged ≥18 years with pre-diabetes or diabetes, providing free FoodShare Fresh Food Boxes biweekly, totaling 13 boxes in six months. We enrolled 676 patients: 66% had diabetes (A1C 6.5%) and 34% prediabetes (A1C 5.7-6.5%); 54% were Black, 23% White, 15% Hispanic and 9% unknown or other race: 64% were aged 40-64 years; 65% were obese, 25% overweight; 32% had Stage 1 hypertension, 37% Stage 2, and 3% were in ‘hypertensive crisis’. Key outcomes (A1C, systolic blood pressure SBP, diastolic blood pressure DBP, weight and body mass index BMI) were measured at baseline and six months. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests: p0.05 was considered significant. Results: At six months, A1C decreased from 8.4 to 7.7% (p = 0.0001) (significant in Black: 8.8 to 8.0%, p = 0.0001; White: 8.3 to 7.7%, p = 0.0001; and Hispanic: 7.5 to 7.0%, p = 0.004). SBP decreased from 135.5 to 132.5 mmHg (p = 0.0001) (Black: 136.4 to 134.0 mmHg, p = 0.012; White: 133.9 to 130.8 mmHg, p = 0.016; and Hispanic: 132.8 to 127.5 mmHg, p = 0.001). DBP decreased from 81.6 to 79.5 mmHg (p = 0.0001) (Black: 82.4 to 80.0 mmHg, p=0.0001: White: 80.5 to 78.4 mmHg, p=0.003; Hispanic: NS). Weight decreased by 2.5 lbs (p = 0.0001) and BMI decreased from 34.2 to 33.8 kg/m² (p = 0.0001) (both significant in all groups). Conclusion: VeggieRx demonstrated significant improvements in A1C, blood pressure and weight in adults with diabetes and prediabetes. Similar programs may offer a scalable, nutrition-based approach to improving health in high-burden regions like South Carolina. Disclosure M.J. Leyva: None. D. Fu: None. C. Draper: None. K.P. Hollins: None. O. Rahemtullah: None. N. O'Donnell: None. T. Lyons: None. Funding BCBSSC Foundation 2020-14
Leyva et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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