NCT07332741

FIM+DASH: Food is Medicine Intervention to Promote Healthy Eating and Blood Pressure Control

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 150 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Illinois at Chicago · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to treat both hypertension and obesity in adults using a food is medicine framework. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to FIM+DASH or usual-care control. The 24-week trial includes a 12-week FIM+DASH intervention followed by a 12-week maintenance period and leverages existing partnerships with community-based organizations for home food delivery and culinary skill-skill building. The main questions it aims to answer are: (1) What is the effect of FIM+DASH vs. usual care control on blood pressure? (2) What is the effect of FIM+DASH vs. usual care control on DASH diet adherence (diet quality), body weight, and waist circumference? (3) How to identify factors associated with the sustainability and scalability of FIM+DASH in real-world settings?

Detailed description

FIM+DASH is adapted from the FIM+DASH pilot and informed by prior NIH-funded dietary interventions integrating clinic-community partnerships for culinary skill building and home food delivery. The intervention is designed to strengthen clinic-to-community linkages that support adoption and maintenance of a DASH eating pattern and hypertension (HTN) self-management for weight and BP control. Core components include in-person group and on-demand culinary skill-building, group and on-demand didactic content for DASH adoption and adherence and HTN self-management, brief one-on-one check-ins with a nutrition professional, and weekly DASH-friendly home food delivery.

Conditions

• Hypertension
• Hypertension (HTN)
• Obesity & Overweight

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
COMBINATION_PRODUCT	FIM intervention arm	For weeks 1-12: Culinary skill-building: 8 In-person and remote sessions will teach participants core techniques (knife skills, batch cooking, sodium-aware seasoning, whole-grain preparation, vegetable-forward entrées, low fat dairy use, lean-protein methods). DASH-friendly home food delivery. Participants will receive 12 weekly deliveries that provide items consistent with DASH (e.g., fruits/vegetables, low-fat dairy \[lactose-free available\], whole grains, lean proteins) dietary regimen. Participants will receive one-on-one support sessions with the interventionist to reinforce DASH adoption/adherence and HTN self-management tasks. For weeks 13-24, self-monitoring of BP and weight twice monthly continues via the text platform.
COMBINATION_PRODUCT	FIM Usual Care Arm	FIM Usual care arm (control) receives usual clinical care during the 24-week period, with limited study contact outside scheduled data-collection visits; after completing all study visits, control participants receive the post-study materials

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-03-01
• Primary completion: 2029-03-01
• Completion: 2029-06-01
• First posted: 2026-01-12
• Last updated: 2026-01-12

Locations

4 sites across 1 country: United States