A simulation by Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy researchers predicts the clinical and financial benefits of making fruits and vegetables more accessible to food-insecure diabetic patients.
An apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, it also could save the United States at least $40 billion in medical bills, report Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy researchers in a new study published July 7 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Their modeled implementation of a nationwide produce prescription program—which would provide free or discounted fruits and vegetables to eligible Americans living with diabetes —projected extensive reductions in national rates of cardiovascular disease and associated health care costs.
Public health agencies and non-profit organizations have been experimenting with variations of produce prescription programs for almost a decade, with accelerating evidence for their effectiveness. Typically, a patient with a diet-related health condition can visit a participating health care provider to receive vouchers or electronic cards that can be redeemed for free or discounted fruits and vegetables delivered to the patient’s home or picked up from a grocery store, farmer’s market, or health care food farmacy.
While produce prescriptions have definable benefits for health—for example, improving blood sugar control, body weight and blood pressure levels—long-term national effects of this promising strategy, if fully implemented, had not previously been investigated.
“Of the strategies that can improve nutrition and diet-related health outcomes for Americans, evidence continues to build that produce prescriptions are a terrific option,” says senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School, who is also launching a new cross-university initiative that will be the first of its kind to focus on advancing Food is Medicine. “These innovative treatments are exciting because they can not only improve health and reduce health care spending, but also reduce disparities by reaching those patients who are most in need.”
Their analysis estimated that a national produce prescription program for 40- to 79-year-olds with diabetes and food insecurity could prevent 296,000 cases of cardiovascular disease (for example, heart attacks and strokes) and gain 260,000 quality-adjusted life years (years lived with good health) over the lifetime of current patients. Through these health gains, these benefits were also estimated to save $39.6 billion in health care spending and $4.8 billion in costs of lost productivity. At the same time, implementing the program nationally would cost $44.3 billion, including all expenses for screening patients, providing food and nutrition education, and necessary administration.