Trial reportThe Journal of infectious diseases2025
Food Is Medicine for Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Improved Health and Hospitalizations in the Changing Health Through Food Support (CHEFS-HIV) Pragmatic Randomized Trial.
Trial report in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03191253 (Changing Health Through Food Support), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Changing Health Through Food Support (CHEFS): Pilot RCT to Identify Potential Health Impacts of Providing Comprehensive, Medically-appropriate Food Support to Low-income Urban Adults Living With HIV (PLHIV)
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Designing Medically Tailored Meal Interventions: The Food as Medicine for Families (FAME-F) Factorial Randomized Clinical Trial.Circulation. Population health and outcomes · 2026Trial
- Nutrition and Culinary Education in Food Is Medicine Interventions: A Scoping Review.Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2026Article
- Medically tailored meals receipt and healthcare utilization and costs in Massachusetts' Medicaid demonstration.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Deaths of Female Sex Workers from HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2019-2023 and Barriers to Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Why patients stay in or leave a medically tailored meals program: a qualitative study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Reframing Food is Medicine as syndemic care: a multidimensional approach to food insecurity.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The Delaware Food Farmacy: Integrating Medically Tailored Groceries and Community Health Workers into Chronic Disease Management.Delaware journal of public health · 2025Article
- A New Approach To Guide Research And Policy At The Intersection Of Income, Food, Nutrition, And Health.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2025Review
- Estimated Impact Of Medically Tailored Meals On Health Care Use And Expenditures In 50 US States.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPolicy support for "food is medicine"-medically tailored meals or groceries to improve health-is rapidly growing. No randomized trials have heretofore investigated the benefits of medically tailored food programs for people with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH).
methodsThe CHEFS-HIV pragmatic randomized trial included PWH who were clients of Project Open Hand (POH), a San Francisco-based nonprofit food organization. The intervention arm (n = 93) received comprehensive medically tailored meals, groceries, and nutritional education. Control participants (n = 98) received less intensive (POH "standard of care") food services. Health, nutrition, and behavioral outcomes were assessed at baseline and 6 months later. Primary outcomes measured were viral nonsuppression and health-related quality of life. Mixed models estimated treatment effects as differences-in-differences between arms.
resultsThe intervention arm had lower odds of hospitalization (odds ratio [OR], 0.11), food insecurity (OR, 0.23), depressive symptoms (OR, 0.32), antiretroviral therapy adherence <90% (OR, 0.18), and unprotected sex (OR, 0.18), as well as less fatty food consumption (β = -.170 servings/day) over 6 months, compared to the control arm. There was no difference between study arms in viral nonsuppression and health-related quality of life over 6 months.
conclusionsA "food is medicine" intervention reduced hospitalizations and improved mental and physical health among PWH, despite no impact on viral suppression. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT03191253.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.