Medically tailored meals as a prescription for treatment of food-insecure type 2 diabetics
Aurora Family Medicine Residency Program
Abstract
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an immense burden to the health of our population and to our current health care system, and the weight of this burden is only projected to multiply in coming years. A nutritious diet is an indispensable aspect of diabetes treatment, and the lack of access to food engenders poor disease-state control, which correlates with increased health care utilization. Interventions aimed at improving access to food through medically tailored meals (MTMs) have demonstrated effectiveness in improving the health of food-insecure type 2 diabetic patients and reducing health care costs. Further studies are necessary to increase the external validity of existing positive research on medically tailored meals in food-insecure diabetic patients and to provide evidence to support potential policy changes under which the costs of medically tailored meals for diabetics might be covered by insurers.