Addressing Rural Disparities in Food and Nutrition Security and Cardiovascular Diseases Through Access to Emergency Food for Older Adults

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Older adults in rural communities experience disparities in food and nutrition security and cardiovascular disease outcomes. Enhancing access to healthy food through the emergency food system (food pantries, food banks, and other direct food aid organizations) has the potential to improve dietary intake for low-income older adults, enhance food and nutrition security, and serve as a prevention measure for cardiovascular diseases, but this resource is underutilized by older adults. Thus, aligned with the Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research’s focus on promotion of healthy aging through nutrition, research is critically needed to understand how to effectively encourage older adults to use the emergency food system. In the proposed project, Dr. Brady, a mixed-methods researcher, will collaboratively work with stakeholders in the emergency food system and older adults to co-produce research on barriers and facilitators to access and develop an intervention to connect older adults to food pantries in their communities. With a diverse mentorship team and the resources available through the University of Minnesota, this Pathway to Independence Award will support Dr. Brady in filling critical gaps in his training in community engaged research, the intervention development process from conception to dissemination, and dietary assessment to begin his career as an independent investigator working with communities to co-produce solutions to food and nutrition security and diet-related chronic disease. To prepare for this role, Dr. Brady will complete a comprehensive training plan including coursework, mentorship, engagement, and research in (1) applied expertise in community-engaged research, (2) intervention development, testing, implementation, and dissemination, and (3) dietary and nutrition assessment methods. This training will prepare Dr. Brady to conduct the proposed research. During the mentored K99 phase, he will identify barriers and facilitators to emergency food access for older adults in rural communities in a mixed methods study using a community engaged approach (Aim 1). In the independent R00 phase, Dr. Brady will use human centered design approaches to co-develop intervention strategies to increase access to emergency foods with older adults and stakeholders in the emergency food system (Aim 2). Finally, he will test this intervention in a preliminary study to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and potential to improve food and nutrition security, dietary intake and cardiovascular disease outcomes (Aim 3). The findings from this proposed research will be used as the foundation for an intervention study examining the effectiveness of these strategies to improve dietary intake and cardiovascular disease outcomes through enhancing food and nutrition security and facilitate Dr. Brady’s transition to a successful, independent research career.