Enhancing the Effectiveness of Home-delivery Based Produce Prescription Program Implementation Strategies

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Home-delivery Based Produce Prescription Program Implementation Strategies

Harris Health System is currently participating, along with two other partners, GoldiFresh Inc., and Brighter Bites, in a cross-sector collaborative home delivery-based Produce Prescription Program (PPRx) pilot initiative that provides consistent access to healthy food plus nutrition education to Medicaid-eligible pregnant women in Harris County, TX, deemed to be at high risk of adverse pregnancy or birth outcomes. The objectives of this study are two-fold: (a) to examine utilization of food basket contents and improvements in diet quality in this home delivery based PPRx program, and (b) to evaluate if and the extent to which utilization of food basket contents outcomes improves with support from an interactive AI-based conversational agent to convert food into healthy meals.

Inclusion Criteria:

• receiving prenatal care at high-risk obstetric clinics
• <= 20 weeks medically-confirmed viable pregnancy
• designated as high risk [Age>=35 years, or obese or overweight (BMI>=25.0 at pre pregnancy self-report), or prior history of pregnancy hypertension or gestational diabetes]
• within the zip code delivery radius

Exclusion Criteria:

• women who were medically recommended bed rest through pregnancy
• substance users