Virtual Teaching Kitchen

Boston University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cardiac Health; Metabolic Syndrome

Treatments: Behavioral: Nutritional education

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04509206

H-39597

Details and patient eligibility

About

A novel way of delivering nutritional education is through experiential learning in a teaching kitchen setting. Studies have shown that patients with metabolic syndrome who underwent a series of classes that featured nutrition recommendations and cooking classes had improved cardiac health.

Boston Medical Center (BMC) serves many underserved, low-income patients and has developed an innovative strategy to combat food insecurity and its consequences. This includes a preventative food pantry, a teaching kitchen, and a rooftop farm that provides fresh produce directly to the patients. The presence of this well-established three-pronged approach places our institution in an ideal position to develop a nutritional education intervention that supports experiential learning in this high-risk population.

Given the increasing focus on providing remote experiences to minimize contact and risk of infection with Sars-COV-2, the investigators are proposing a study where patients can benefit from nutritional education virtually. Patients with food insecurity and metabolic syndrome who utilize the food pantry will be invited to an educational program conducted on zoom. The program will be run by a registered dietician and chef who will deliver education virtually. Data will be collected using surveys, phone interviews, chart review, and home monitoring to test both the feasibility of running such an intervention virtually and to explore whether attending this program improves cardiac health in patients.

Enrollment: 16 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 30+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Users of the food pantry
• English speaking
• Must have one of following on their EPIC problem list (Diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or obstructive sleep apnea)
• Must have documented measured blood pressure, weight, height in the 12 months prior to the intervention.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with advanced dementia or uncontrolled psychiatric disease
• Non-english speakers since education delivered in the pilot in English
• Uncontrolled medical illness including hypertension, recent acute coronary syndrome, active malignancy or other condition that would make the subject unable to complete the study procedures

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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16 participants in 1 patient group

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects will undergo four nutritional educational classes, lasting 1 hour long, conducted over a two month period. These classes will occur on zoom and subjects will be located in their home.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Nutritional education