A study found medically tailored grocery deliveries improved blood sugar control among Medicaid-insured adults with type 2 diabetes, compared with usual care.
The findings, from researchers from Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, Burlington, Mass.-based Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute and The George Institute for Global Health, were published July 21 in Circulation.
The randomized controlled trial enrolled 460 Medicaid-insured patients with persistently elevated blood sugar at 12 Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical office buildings. Participants, recruited between November 2021 and July 2022, were randomly assigned to usual care or one of two monthly levels of medically tailored groceries, averaging about $135 or $175, paired with weekly home deliveries, culturally tailored recipes and phone-based nutrition counseling.
Participants receiving medically tailored groceries saw an additional 0.40-point reduction in HbA1c over six months compared with usual care. Among grocery recipients, the odds of food security rose nearly 215%, and nutrition security rose 365%. Blood sugar improvements were similar regardless of grocery amount.
“This trial shows that food-based support can help patients with low incomes lower their blood sugar levels above and beyond the health care they receive,” lead author Claudia Nau, PhD, a researcher with Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research & Evaluation, said in a July 21 health system news release.
The study builds on a partnership between Kaiser Permanente and Tufts that dates to April 2024, when Kaiser launched its Food Is Medicine Center of Excellence to research food-based interventions for diet-related chronic disease. The two organizations expanded that work in February 2025, forming the Food Is Medicine National Network of Excellence alongside other health systems and insurers to develop best practices for medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions and nutrition education.
The study was funded by Kaiser Permanente Community Health.
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