Despite being the number-one driver of poor health outcomes in the U.S., nutrition is largely missing as a focus of the nation’s health care system, according to Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, Jean Mayer Professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
But a growing movement aims to change that.
Delivering the keynote at the 34th Annual Symposium on Health Care Services in New York: Research and Practice on November 1, Dr. Mozaffarian highlighted the power of “Food is Medicine,” a movement that develops and uses a set of food-based nutrition interventions in health care to treat disease and advance health equity.
The stakes are far-reaching. Poor nutrition is estimated to kill 10,000 Americans each week and is linked to nearly half of cardiometabolic deaths in the country and 70 percent of diabetes cases worldwide. Americans with lower incomes, living in rural communities, and from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups are among the most affected, according to Tufts’ Food is Medicine Institute.
“If we’re in health care, we have to care about nutrition because this is the top cause of death and disability in the country,” Dr. Mozaffarian told more than 125 attendees at the CUNY Graduate Center. “Food insecurity—the social structures and poverty that go along with that—and poor nutrition all overlap together to cause tremendous health disparities.”
Food is Medicine programs—highlighted at the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health—include nutrition education for doctors, produce prescription programs for free or discounted healthy foods, and medically tailored meals or groceries for those with chronic illnesses.
In addition to reducing hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and nursing home admissions, it is estimated that medically tailored meals could save the country $13.6 billion annually if all eligible Americans received the intervention, Dr. Mozaffarian said. Similarly, produce prescriptions can save an estimated $40 billion a year in health care costs.
“We have a moment in time in this country where, if we implement this strategy, we can really make a difference,” noted Dr. Mozaffarian, who is also a professor at Tufts School of Medicine.
Dr. Mozaffarian’s keynote address was one of several informative presentations at the November 1 symposium, sponsored by United Hospital Fund and Greater New York Hospital Association. The annual event aims to foster collaboration on and understanding of current health care research in New York, build bridges among health services researchers and practitioners, and showcase the New York health services research community.
The event began with a panel on the intersection of health and housing moderated by Carla Nelson, MBA, vice president of ambulatory care and population health at GNYHA’s Department of Government Affairs, Communications, and Public Policy. Panelists included Emmy Tiderington, PhD, LMSW, associate professor at the Rutgers University School of Social Work and associate faculty at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research; Emily Engel, MBA, director of the Bureau of Social Care and Community Supports at the New York State Department of Health Office of Insurance Programs; and Deirdre Sekulic, LCSW, assistant director of social work at Montefiore Medical Center.
Each of the panelists highlighted various strategies for improving housing access and retention while noting that quality affordable housing leads to lower Medicaid costs, lower overall accumulated medical expenses, fewer emergency room visits, and more primary care visits. Among the approaches featured were the NY Medicaid Redesign Team Supportive Housing Initiative, Montefiore’s Housing at Risk (H@RP) program, and the Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and Housing First models.
“The integration of services for both health and housing needs under one roof...is the secret sauce,” Dr. Tiderington said.
Throughout the symposium, attendees also got the chance to visit 19 poster presentations highlighting research and evaluation findings from across the region.
Poster presenters tackled a range of important issues, including:
- Creating a tool to offer more targeted care to adult patients experiencing homelessness
- Evaluating a program to integrate social and medical services for older adults with complex health needs
- Identifying patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital in need of more follow-up care
- Analyzing a Gender Affirmation Program that cares for patients who have undergone gender-affirming surgery
- Surveying international medical graduates practicing in the U.S. to help improve retention post-residency
Find a video of the event and a link to the slide presentation and poster list below.
Click here to download the slide presentation.
Click here for a full list of poster presenters.