Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41919373›Full record

Trial reportCirculation. Population health and outcomes2026

Designing Medically Tailored Meal Interventions: The Food as Medicine for Families (FAME-F) Factorial Randomized Clinical Trial.

Seth A Berkowitz, Jacqueline Nguyen, Colleen Dagley, Salma Ali, Myklynn LaPoint, Patricia Knoepp, Jean Terranova

Registry-linked trialAbstract readComparative StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Circulation. Population health and outcomes, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06160973 (Food as Medicine for Families), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT06160973 nacompletednot on this map

Food as Medicine for Families

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel HillRan2024 to 2025Enrolled103ConditionsDiet, Healthy, LonelinessArmsFeed the Household, Dedicated Driver, Feed the Individual, Commercial Shipper
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Seth A BerkowitzDivision of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill (S.A.B.).ORCID 0000-0003-1030-4297
Jacqueline NguyenCommunity Servings, Inc, Jamaica Plain, MA (J.N., C.D., J.T.).
Colleen DagleyCommunity Servings, Inc, Jamaica Plain, MA (J.N., C.D., J.T.).
Salma AliSheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (S.A.B., S.A., M.L.P., P.K.).ORCID 0009-0007-8982-1057
Myklynn LaPointSheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (S.A.B., S.A., M.L.P., P.K.).ORCID 0009-0007-5847-1285
Patricia KnoeppSheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (S.A.B., S.A., M.L.P., P.K.).
Jean TerranovaCommunity Servings, Inc, Jamaica Plain, MA (J.N., C.D., J.T.).ORCID 0000-0002-4850-5089

Funding

Understanding & Overcoming Food Insecurity in Diabetes PatientsK23DK109200 · NIDDK · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI BERKOWITZ, SETH A · 2016 to 2020
$973k
NIDDK NIH HHS K23 DK109200
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMedically tailored meals (MTM) have unanswered implementation questions. Providing MTM for a specific individual, rather than the entire household, could underdose if food is shared, but household MTM is more costly. Delivery with commercial shippers rather than dedicated drivers may broaden accessibility but could worsen mental health. We sought to test these possibilities.

methods2×2 factorial randomized comparative effectiveness trial (February 2024-May 2025) of adults with control over dietary intake in New England. All participants received 10 MTM per week for 12 weeks, prepared under the supervision of a registered dietitian. Participants were randomly assigned along 2 dimensions: dose (feed the family versus feed the individual) and delivery (dedicated driver versus commercial shipper). The primary dose dimension outcome was the Healthy Eating Index 2020 diet quality score (range, 0-100; higher scores indicating greater adherence to dietary guidelines). The primary delivery dimension outcome was the de Jong Gierveld loneliness scale (range, 0-11; greater scores indicating more loneliness). Intention-to-treat linear regression analyses assessed outcomes at 12 weeks and allowed for interactions between dimensions.

resultsNinety-three participants (mean [SD] age: 57.6 [12.9] years; 67% female; 48.9% non-Hispanic White) were randomized: 46 to feed the family, 47 to feed the individual, to 43 dedicated driver, and 50 to a commercial shipper. For the dose dimension, no significant differences were detected in Healthy Eating Index score (feed the individual: 61.4; feed the family: 62.5, difference: 1.1 [95% CI, -22.6 to 24.9]). For the delivery dimension, no significant differences were detected in loneliness scores (dedicated driver: 7.1, commercial shipper: 6.8; difference, 0.4 [95% CI, -1.5 to 2.2]).

conclusionsProviding MTM to the entire household does not necessarily improve the focal individual's diet quality, relative to feeding that individual alone. MTM programs could choose which delivery strategy to adopt based on considerations other than participant mental health. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT06160973.

Indexed as

Diet, HealthyMealsAdultFeeding BehaviorFemaleHumansLonelinessMaleMiddle AgedNew Englandclinical trialdietfoodlonelinessmental healthnutritionist

Identifiers

PMID41919373
PMCPMC13045650

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

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.