Title:
Providers' perspectives on produce prescription programs in rural communities.
Brief description:
Food insecurity and obesity were the 2nd highest community health needs identified by Parkview’s Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Whitley County, Indiana (Parkview Health, 2023). The top community health concern of Whitley County citizens were obesity and chronic disease. Suboptimal nutrition and food insecurity are essential mediators of health disparity and have been closely tied to chronic illness (Mozaffarian, 2024). Obesity in Whitley County is on the rise with a rate of 36.6% compared to Indiana’s 33.4%, and food insecurity is at 10.1%. Limited access to healthy foods is a key contributor to these rates (Parkview Health, 2023).
Produce Prescription Programs are supported by the American College of Cardiology as a prevention strategy for diet-related chronic diseases and a way to improve health equity (Mozaffarian, 2024). A produce prescription program has been successfully implemented by Parkview in Allen County since 2019 and is supported through a USDA grant (https://www.parkview.com/mirro-center/hsir/veggie-rx-to-heal).
This project aims to examine primary care providers’ perspectives regarding barriers and facilitators to implementing a produce prescription program to address food insecurity and diet-related chronic illness in rural Whitley County. The health-related goal is to gather information and concerns to address barriers before implementing a program in Whitley County. There will be a short PowerPoint presentation and discussion with healthcare providers followed by a survey asking about concerns, barriers, and support providers need to refer and educate patients on the program.
Mozaffarian, D., Aspry, K., Garfield, K.. et al. (2024) “Food Is Medicine” Strategies for nutrition security and cardiometabolic health equity: JACC state-of-the-art review. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 83(8,) 843–864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.12.023
Parkview Health (2023). 2023 Implementation strategy: Parkview Whitley Hospital, Inc. https://www.parkview.com/-/media/parkview-media/file/2020-pa---albright/2023-implementation-strategy-whitley-final.ashx
Project mentor:
Dr. Sarah Giaquinta, Senior VP of Community Health & Equity for Parkview Health
Faculty mentor:
Dr. Susan Storey, IU faculty
