Exploring the prospective acceptability of a healthy food incentive program from the perspective of people with type 2 diabetes and experiences of household food insecurity in Alberta, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: FoodRx is a 12-month healthy food prescription incentive program for people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and experiences of household food insecurity. In this study, we aimed to explore potential users' prospective acceptability (acceptability prior to program use) of the design and delivery of the FoodRx incentive and identify factors influencing prospective acceptability. DESIGN: We used a qualitative descriptive approach and purposive sampling to recruit individuals who were interested or uninterested in using the FoodRx incentive. Semi-structured interviews were guided by the theoretical framework of acceptability, and corresponding interview transcripts were analysed using differential qualitative analysis guided by the socioecological model. SETTING: Individuals living in Alberta, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: In total, fifteen adults with T2DM and experiences of household food insecurity. RESULTS: People who were interested in using the FoodRx incentive (n 10) perceived it to be more acceptable than those who were uninterested (n 5). We identified four themes that captured factors that influenced users' prospective acceptability: (i) participants' confidence, views and beliefs of FoodRx design and delivery and its future use (intrapersonal), (ii) the shopping routines and roles of individuals in participants' social networks (interpersonal), (iii) access to and experience with food retail outlets (community), and (iv) income and food access support to cope with the cost of living (policy). CONCLUSION: Future healthy food prescription programs should consider how factors at all levels of the socioecological model influence program acceptability and use these data to inform program design and delivery.

Experiences and perceived outcomes of a grocery gift card programme for households at risk of food insecurity.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored programme recipients' and deliverers' experiences and perceived outcomes of accessing or facilitating a grocery gift card (GGC) programme from I Can for Kids (iCAN), a community-based programme that provides GGC to low-income families with children. DESIGN: This qualitative descriptive study used Freedman et al's framework of nutritious food access to guide data generation and analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between August and November 2020. Data were analysed using directed content analysis with a deductive-inductive approach. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-four participants were purposively recruited, including thirty-seven programme recipients who accessed iCAN's GGC programme and seventeen programme deliverers who facilitated it. SETTING: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. RESULTS: Three themes were generated from the data. First, iCAN's GGC programme promoted a sense of autonomy and dignity among programme recipients as they appreciated receiving financial support, the flexibility and convenience of using GGC, and the freedom to select foods they desired. Recipients perceived these benefits improved their social and emotional well-being. Second, recipients reported that the use of GGC improved their households' dietary patterns and food skills. Third, both participant groups identified programmatic strengths and limitations. CONCLUSION: Programme recipients reported that iCAN's GGC programme provided them with dignified access to nutritious food and improved their households' finances, dietary patterns, and social and emotional well-being. Increasing the number of GGC provided to households on each occasion, establishing clear and consistent criteria for distributing GGC to recipients, and increasing potential donors' awareness of iCAN's GGC programme may augment the amount of support iCAN could provide to households.

Accounting for concurrent antihyperglycemic medication changes in dietary and physical activity interventions: A focused literature review.

AIMS: To summarize methods used to account for antihyperglycemic medication changes in randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of dietary and physical activity interventions on glycemia among adults with diabetes. METHODS: Using studies included in two recently published systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials examining the glycemic effects of dietary and physical activity interventions, we evaluated how each study accounted for antihyperglycemic medication changes. Data were analyzed using summary statistics, stratified by the type of intervention studied, and each was assigned a score from 0 to 6 reflecting the strength of medication controls employed. RESULTS: We evaluated 22 physical activity focused and 27 dietary focused articles. Our scoring system yielded a mean concurrent medication adjustment score of 3.9/6 for the physical activity studies and a score of 1.7/6 (p < 0.001) for the dietary studies. CONCLUSIONS: We found that randomized controlled trials included in recent systematic reviews of physical activity and dietary interventions did not robustly account or control for changes in antihyperglycemic medications, with physical activity interventions doing so more robustly than dietary interventions. This is a threat to the validity of study findings, as observed glycemic changes may in fact be attributable to imbalances in concurrent medication adjustments between groups.

Age modification of diabetes-related hospitalization among First Nations adults in Alberta, Canada.

BACKGROUND: We sought to determine the modifying effects of age and multimorbidity on the association between First Nations status and hospitalizations for diabetes-specific ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). FINDINGS: We identified 183,654 adults with diabetes from Alberta Canada, and followed them for one year for the outcome of hospitalization or emergency department (ED) visit for a diabetes-specific ACSC. We used logistic regression to determine the association between First Nations status and the outcome, assessing for effect modification by age and multimorbidity with interaction terms. In a model adjusting for age, age(2), baseline A1c, duration of diabetes, and multimorbidity, First Nations people were at greater risk than non-First Nations to experience a diabetes-specific hospitalization or ED visit (unadjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.74; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.45-4.07). After adjustment for relevant covariates, this association varied by age (interaction: p = 0.018): adjusted OR 3.94 (95% CI: 3.11-4.99) and 5.74 (95% CI: 3.36-9.80) for First Nations compared to non-First Nations at ages 30 and 80 years, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with non-First Nations, older First Nations patients with diabetes are at greater risk for diabetes-specific hospitalizations. Older First Nations patients with diabetes should be given priority access to primary care services as they are at greatest risk for requiring hospitalization for stabilization of their condition.