CHEFS-DM is a six-month intervention providing a diabetes-tailored diet meeting approximately 75% of daily energy requirements and designed based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, together with diabetes nutritional education provided by registered dietitians. In this pragmatic RCT, investigators propose to rigorously evaluate the intervention among 440 low-income adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) recruited from networks of safety net clinics in San Francisco and Alameda counties, California.~Participants will be randomized 1:1 to the intervention (n=220) versus control (n=220), using a parallel design. The study aims are as follows:~Aim 1: To determine the impact of CHEFS-DM on glycemic control and other cardiometabolic outcomes.~Aim 2: To determine the impact of CHEFS-DM on intermediate outcomes that may mediate any impact of CHEFS-DM on T2DM health.~Participant will be followed for 6 months (control arm) and 12 months (intervention arm) with structured interviews, anthropometric assessments, 24-hour dietary recalls, blood pressure measurements, fasting blood draws, semi structured interviews, and medical record review. Follow-up will be broken up into two phases. From baseline to six months, researchers will implement the CHEFS-DM intervention and follow both intervention and control arm participants (n=440). After the end of the six-month follow-up, the intervention arm will transition to receiving standard POH services comprising 33% to 67% of daily energy requirements depending on health status, and will be followed for an additional six months, in order to assess the extent to which any health benefits are sustained at 12 months (n=220). Hence, the control arm will be followed for six months and participate in two sets of assessments (baseline and at six months), and the intervention arm will be followed for 12 months and participate in three sets of assessments (baseline, six months, and twelve months).
This is a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Changing Health through Food Support for Diabetes (CHEFS-DM). This pragmatic RCT will leverage Project Open Hand's (POH) real-world programs to test the impact of a six month medically tailored food support and nutrition intervention (CHEFS-DM) on glycemic control and other cardiometabolic outcomes, investigate the paths through which CHEFS-DM may durably improve health, and assess the economic value of the intervention to society.