Food for Health Equity: Evaluation of a Nutrition Assistance Program

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study seeks to evaluate whether a nutrition assistance quality improvement program for patients with cancer and food insecurity receiving active treatment at Pacific Cancer Care will have reductions in food insecurity.

Detailed Description
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This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness and patient satisfaction with a nutrition assistance quality improvement program in which a randomly selected 30 patients will receive a food voucher with $40.00 each month for 6 months for use in the produce section at local grocery stores in the county. The primary outcome is understanding whether this program is effective at reducing food insecurity among patients being treated for cancer and will provide key insights that may guide program expansion or improvement.

Official Title
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Addressing LatinX Cancer Care Equity: Food for Health Equity

Conditions
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Cancer

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Nutrition Assistance Program


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Patient Participants must be undergoing or starting treatment for cancer at the Pacific Cancer Care clinic who screen positive for food insecurity using at 2-item screener, speak English or Spanish, have capacity to consent (e.g. no dementia or other cognitive impairment), are Latinx or another racial and ethnic minority group OR low income, have public insurance, OR are insured by an agricultural company sponsored health insurance Exclusion Criteria: Patients will be ineligible if they do not have a current cancer diagnosis, cannot communicate in English or Spanish, are deemed ineligible to consent, are under 18 years of age, are not Latinx or another racial/ethnic minority OR are not low income OR are not publicly insured, uninsured, or do not have health insurance from an agricultural company

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 99 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Patients as part of a nutrition assistance program will randomly receive food vouchers for $40.00 each month for use in the produce section of local grocery stores for 6 months.
Masking: Triple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Nutrition Assistance Program<br>A total of 30 Latinx cancer patients on active cancer treatment who have screened positive for food insecurity will receive a $40.00 voucher for use each month for 6 months for nutrition assistance in the produce section of local grocery stores after enrollment in the program. | Other: Nutrition Assistance Program<br>* Patients will receive in the intervention group a $40.00 per month voucher for 6 months for use in the produce section of a local grocery store.<br>|
| No Intervention: Usual Care<br>A total of 30 patients who have screened positive for food insecurity will receive usual care consisting of referral to the local food bank as part of the nutrition assistance program. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food Insecurity | A validated six-item short form of the Household Food Security Scale will be administered to participants at time of enrollment and again at 6-months post-enrollment. Responses to questions often and sometimes versus never which are considered affirmative responses. Two or more affirmative responses indicate food insecurity, five or more affirmative responses indicates hunger. | Baseline to 6 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Food Insecurity, Food Assistance Quality Improvement Program, Latinx and minority patients