Clinical trial NCT06368739: Evaluation of Medicaid Food & Nutrition Support Program for Pregnant Women
Official title: Evaluation of Medicaid Grocery Gift Cards & Nutrition Education Program for Pregnant Women on Maternal and Infant Outcomes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Pregnancy Related
Financial Gift
Nutrition, Healthy
Keywords: gift card
nutrition education
nutrition consultation
food purchase
recipe
telephone
medicaid
health claims
Lead sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Driscoll Health Plan
First posted: 2024-04-16
Enrollment: 224
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 30
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: From the eligible population, DHP randomly selected a subset of approximately 500 women during the pilot period, from which approximately 200 were in the program, the "exposed group." The women who were covered during the same period but were not selected were not exposed to the program and will compose the "comparison group."
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: With funding from the Episcopal Health Foundation, the researchers will conduct a secondary data analysis to evaluate the impact of Driscoll Health Plan's Nurture program for pregnant members using claims data.

Detailed description: This record describes a quality improvement program (called "Nurture") piloted by Driscoll Health Plan, which included nutrition education and food purchase support offered to a subset of pregnant women aged 30 years and above and covered by the Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) plan in their "STAR" and "CHIP" programs during October 2022 and July 2023.

Factor Health lab at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin will do a secondary data analysis to evaluate the impact of DHP's program.

Driscoll Health Plan (DHP) is a non-profit, community-based health insurance plan that provides coverage to South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley communities. Their insurance products include STAR Medicaid, STAR Kids, CHIP, and CHIP Perinatal.

With input from Factor Health lab at Dell Medical School, DHP introduced the Nurture program for its members as a quality improvement initiative, designed to expand members' access to nutrition education and food purchase support to improve health and pregnancy outcomes.

Nurture included up to 8 packages mailed every four weeks until the member reaches the end of pregnancy. Each package included USD $40 in the form of gift cards to a large-chain grocery store, a healthy eating information sheet selected from Brighter Bites (https://brighterbites.org/), a set of three recipes, and nutrition-related Frequently Asked Questions during pregnancy (in four out of the eight packages). Members also received two 30-minute nutritional consultations over the phone.

Members had the flexibility to opt out of the program at any time and discontinue receiving packages. Consultations were optional. If they opted out, they continued to receive the DHP benefits as part of their regular coverage.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Member of Driscoll Health Plan
* Pregnant
* Aged 30 or older

Exclusion Criteria:

* Not a member of Driscoll Health Plan
* Not pregnant
* Younger than 30 years of age

Primary outcomes:
measure: Composite outcome 1: Adverse health events during pregnancy
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Composite outcome 2: Adverse health events at birth and newborn-related
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
measure: Emergency Department visits
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Cost (outpatient)
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Cost (inpatient)
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Cost (pharmacy/medication)
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Cost (total)
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Delivery mode (vaginal, C-section)
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Birthweight
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Prenatal visits
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
measure: Gift card usage
timeFrame: 30 days after inactive from program
measure: Nutritional consults attended
timeFrame: At pregnancy delivery
Locations:
city: Corpus Christi
country: United States
facility: Driscoll Health Plan
state: Texas
Study officials:
References: