Deliver-EE: Evaluating Effects of Meal Delivery

NCT ID: NCT05357261

Last Updated: 2025-08-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 2300 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-05-01
• Study Completion Date: 2028-03-01

Brief Summary

This study will randomly assign 2,300 older adults on waiting lists at fourteen Meals on Wheels programs in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and California into two groups who will receive: (a) daily delivery of meals, five days a week or (b) a shipment of 10 frozen meals, every two weeks. Researchers will examine participants' Medicare claims to understand if differences in healthcare utilization occur between the two groups within six months after they start receiving meals. Researchers will also ask participants questions prior to receiving meals, and again at three months, to understand how meals impact their ability to obtain food, their feelings of loneliness, and their overall quality of life. The primary study outcome will be the ratio of days spent in institutional settings (i.e., hospital, nursing home) in the six months after participants begin receiving meals. The secondary outcomes include the ratio of days spent in institutional settings in the three months after participants begin receiving meals, food insecurity, subjective isolation/loneliness, and health-related quality of life. The team will also examine differences in dietary intake between the two groups as an exploratory outcome.

Detailed Description

Background and Significance: Food insecurity among older adults is a critical public health issue with implications for families, the healthcare system, and society. In 2017, an estimated 5.5 million older adults (7.7%) in the United States were food insecure. Among older adults, food insecurity is associated with poor health status and outcomes and accounts for an estimated $130 billion annually in medical expenses. As a result, healthcare entities (e.g., payers, integrated systems, providers) are increasingly interested in addressing food insecurity, among other social risk factors, through non-medical services such as home-delivered meals to older patients and enrollees. Home-delivered meals, long provided through a network of community-based organizations funded through the Older Americans Act, state dollars, and charitable contributions, promote food security, socialization, and independence among older adults. While meals have traditionally been provided daily to clients' homes by a volunteer or paid driver, mailed frozen meals have emerged in recent years as a lower cost alternative. However, there is limited evidence about what mode of delivery is most effective in promoting community independence, reducing healthcare utilization, and improving patients' quality of life, as well as how these outcomes may vary as a function of patients' preferences for how meals are delivered to them.

Study Aims: The long-term goal of this research is to generate evidence to guide patient, family, meal programs, and healthcare entities' decision-making about which mode of meal delivery is best for promoting important, patient-centered outcomes. This will be accomplished through three specific aims: 1) To evaluate the effectiveness of receiving daily-delivered meals with a safety check and socialization versus frozen, drop-shipped meals on food insecure, homebound older adults' ability to remain in the community; 2) To understand food insecure, homebound older adults' preferences for mode of meal delivery and the effect of receiving a meal that is concordant with their preference on their ability to remain in the community; and 3) To measure and quantify secondary outcomes prioritized by stakeholders related to these different modes of meal delivery.

Study Description: This is a two-arm pragmatic, randomized controlled trial that will compare participants' health outcomes between two conventional approaches for delivering meals to food insecure, homebound older adults at thirteen diverse Meals on Wheels America member programs in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, California, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The comparators are the two main modes of meal delivery used in everyday practice: daily-delivered meals and drop-shipped, frozen meals. A total of 2300 food insecure, homebound older adults (ages 66+) on waiting lists at these programs will be enrolled in the study; 1150 older adults will receive meals delivered five days per week, with socialization and a wellness check by a volunteer or paid driver, and 1150 will receive a box of 10 frozen meals that will be mailed to participants every two weeks. The primary outcome will be the ratio of days that a participant is in an institutional setting (i.e., hospital, nursing home) in the six months following the start of meal delivery and will be derived from data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; secondary outcomes include the ratio of days in institutional settings in the three months following the start of meal delivery, food insecurity, loneliness, and quality of life. Secondary outcomes will be derived from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' data and surveys with participants. Self-reported dietary intake will be included as an exploratory outcome. To examine heterogeneity of treatment effects, the investigators will test for interactions between the two types of meals and participants' preferences for meals, as well as clients' living arrangements. This research will be the first to prospectively evaluate the comparative effectiveness of the two predominant meal delivery options in partnership with a variety of stakeholders. The knowledge generated from this research will be of tremendous value to healthcare payers, health systems, providers, community-based organizations, patients, and their families, because it will identify the mode of meal delivery that best meets older, homebound, and food insecure patients' needs and promotes community independence

Conditions

Healthy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Daily home delivered meals

A lunch-time meal delivered to participants' homes five days per week with wellness check and socialization.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Wellness Check and Socialization

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

In-home delivery with opportunity for driver observation and interaction

Prepared Meals

Intervention Type: OTHER

Prepared meals compliant with Older Americans Act nutrition programs guidelines

Frozen, Drop-shipped Meals

Ten frozen meals that are mailed to participants every two weeks.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Prepared Meals

Intervention Type: OTHER

Prepared meals compliant with Older Americans Act nutrition programs guidelines

Interventions

Wellness Check and Socialization

In-home delivery with opportunity for driver observation and interaction

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Prepared Meals

Prepared meals compliant with Older Americans Act nutrition programs guidelines

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Age 66+
• On program waiting list
• Must reside in program's daily service area
• Must be able to eat a general diet with no dietary restrictions

Exclusion Criteria

• Primary language is not English or Spanish
• Has end stage renal disease/requires specialized renal diet
• Unable to participate in a phone survey/interview (e.g., difficulty hearing, lack of comprehension of study purpose, does not have working phone)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 66 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Meals on Wheels America

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Johns Hopkins University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Brown University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Kali S. Thomas, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

Kimberly P. Bernard, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Brown University School of Public Health

Locations

Meals on Wheels San Diego County

San Diego, California, United States

Neighborly Care Network

Clearwater, Florida, United States

Aging True

Jacksonville, Florida, United States

Meals on Wheels Northeastern Illinois

Evanston, Illinois, United States

Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Meals On Wheels Durham

Durham, North Carolina, United States

Senior Resources of Guilford

Greensboro, North Carolina, United States

Meals On Wheels - Anderson

Anderson, South Carolina, United States

Senior Resources Inc

Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA)

Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Visiting Nurse Association of Texas

Dallas, Texas, United States

Northwest Assistance Ministries

Houston, Texas, United States

Amigos Del Valle, Inc

Mission, Texas, United States

Meals on Wheels San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas, United States

Countries

United States

References

Thomas KS, Bernard KP, Clark M, Dionne L, Fisher A, Gadbois E, Harrison J, Juckett L, Locher J, Risica P, Sequeira T, Theilheimer L, Gutman R. Evaluating effects of meal delivery on the ability of homebound older adults to remain in the community via a pragmatic, two-arm, randomized comparative effectiveness trial: study protocol for the Deliver-EE trial. Trials. 2024 Nov 22;25(1):787. doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08635-3.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 39574158 (View on PubMed)

Juckett LA, Bernard KP, Clark MA, Gadbois EA, Wright B, Thomas KS. Core functions and forms in home-delivered meal programs: a stakeholder-driven approach to identifying essential practices. Implement Sci Commun. 2025 Apr 14;6(1):43. doi: 10.1186/s43058-025-00728-7.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40229891 (View on PubMed)

Juckett LA, Bernard KP, Thomas KS. Partnering with social service staff to implement pragmatic clinical trials: an interim analysis of implementation strategies. Trials. 2023 Nov 17;24(1):739. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07757-4.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37978528 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

IHS-2020C3-21201

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

2022003287

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id