Despite advances in prevention and treatment, barriers to adherence are common and HTN disparities remain pervasive. Populations that have been socially and economically disadvantaged have a greater prevalence of HTN, worse blood pressure control, and are at higher risk of developing CVD from HTN. Food insecurity (FI), the lack of consistent access to nutritionally adequate foods, is an important social need that affects 30 million people in the US, impacts adherence to treatment, and contributes to HTN disparities. Increasingly, health systems are investing in interventions to address FI as part of routine care, including lower-cost, low intensity (e.g. providing information about community resources) and higher-cost, high intensity (e.g. using community health workers (CHWs), delivery of medical tailored meals (MTM)) interventions
In the US, 47% of adults have hypertension (HTN), and HTN accounts for more cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths than any other CVD risk factor. Thus, the lack of an adaptive, stepped-care intervention to address FI in patients with HTN is a critical problem affecting a large, vulnerable population.