Cost-Effectiveness of a Rural North Carolina Hybrid Prescription Produce Diabetes Self-Management Program

Abstract

In recent years diabetes has become a prominent issue in healthcare. With diabetes prevalence increasing over the past decades, research into programs that can effectively reduce the symptoms and comorbidities of diabetes has become more popular. Diabetes Management Programs are initiatives that directly work with diagnosed diabetics to improve education on the condition while reducing the impact of it on daily function. Such programs focused on physical activity, medication usage, nutritional education, and prescription all aim to use different methodologies to create this effect. Cost-effectiveness of these programs has been researched through existing literature. The Fresh Start Program is a hybrid 20-week Diabetes Self-Management project created due to the need for sustainable healthy food options in rural areas of Eastern North Carolina. The program aims to educate and provide resources to uninsured individuals in managing diabetes. This paper serves as quantitative evidence of both the cost and cost-effectiveness of participants of the Fresh Start Program. The hybrid Fresh Start Program utilizes approaches of other diabetes management programs and has a comparable cost to each analyzed program type, $528.8 per participant. Participants experience a significant benefit in terms of program benefits including improved diet quality and physical activity, stabilized HBA1c, and decreased weight indicated by a potential cost savings benefit of $2,220.52 per participant. Public health organizers and advocates can utilize the findings of this paper as evidence of the cost-effectiveness of programs similar to Fresh Start.