By OPEN MINDS Circle
A “food as medicine” purchasing education program launched by Kroger Health, a division of the Kroger grocery chain, helped people reduce their cardiovascular risk factors. The program helped adult Kroger shoppers who had been under the care of a primary care professional for obesity, hypercholesterolemia, or hypertension follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. Over three months, the participants’ average DASH scores rose by about 8.6 points to 12.4 points over baseline than DASH scores for a control group, which rose by 5.8 points over three months.
The Kroger Health “food as medicine” program provides data-guided purchasing education to help consumers make food choices linked to reducing cardiovascular risks. The program is called OptUP. Kroger launched the program in 2018 as part of its “Wellness Your Way” platform. Kroger customers who download the Kroger app can use the program to learn more about the nutritional value of their food purchases linked to their Shopper’s Card. The OptUP system was developed by Kroger Health dietitians. It uses nutrition information and machine learning to rate foods on a scale from 1 (low nutritional value) to 100 (excellent nutritional value). All Kroger customers have free, no-cost, access to Kroger’s OptUP nutrition rating system. For the OptUP rating system, Kroger customers who use a Kroger Shopper’s Card can participate in OptUP. When they use their Shopper’s Card, the Kroger system will analyze the purchases. Kroger customers can also schedule 60-minute telenutrition sessions with a Kroger Health registered dieticians.
The evaluation included 267 adults between age 21 and 75 under the care of a primary care professional who were randomized to one of two intervention groups or a control group (51 people). The intervention lasted for six months. One intervention group (107 people) received six sessions of data-guided purchasing education; this approach was characterized as an “in the aisles” intervention. The other intervention group (109 people) included the six sessions plus a stepwise introduction and training on technologies such as online shopping. The participants were frequent Kroger shoppers willing to follow the DASH diet.
The primary outcome was the change in DASH scores from baseline to three months, (higher scores are better). The secondary outcomes were change in DASH scores from baseline to six months and change in blood pressure over six months.
|
Outcomes From Kroger Food As Medicine Evaluation | |||
|
Intervention Group | Change In DASH Scores Over Three Months | Change In DASH Scores Over Six Months |
Change In Blood Pressure Over Six Months |
| “In the aisles” n = 107 |
8.6 | 8.4 |
-6.6 |
| “Online” n = 109 |
12.4 | 6.6 |
-5.7 |
| Control n = 51 |
5.8 | 4.4 |
-2.8 |
These findings were reported in “Supermarket and Web-Based Intervention Targeting Nutrition – SuperWIN” by Dylan L Steen, M.D., MS. The researcher concluded that the outcomes showed that dietary intervention improves healthy food choices (improvement in DASH score). However, the improvement in DASH scores were not sustained to six months. Blood pressure was not improved by dietary intervention.
For more information about the Kroger Health “food as medicine” program, contact: Erin Rolfes, Director of Media Relations/Corporate Communications Office, Customer Relations, The Kroger Co., 1014 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100; 513-762-1304; Email: Erin.Rolfes@kroger.com; Website: https://www.thekrogerco.com/contact-us/
For more information about the SuperWIN study findings, contact: Dylan L. Steen, M.D., MS, Director of Clinical Trials and Population Health Research, UC Heart, Lung, and Vascular Institute, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, CARE/Crawley Building, Suite E-870, 3230 Eden Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267; 513-558-6573; Email: steendl@ucmail.uc.edu; Website: https://med.uc.edu/institutes/HLVI/directory/faculty-profile/Index/Pubs/steendl