The University of Kentucky’s Alison Gustafson leads a team of researchers, clinicians, community partners, health care partners and food commodity producers to address food insecurity and its impact on the health of Kentuckians.

“I focus on addressing food insecurity as a key determinant on the pathway to diet-sensitive chronic disease outcomes,” said Gustafson, director of the Food as Health Alliance. “When we think of diabetes or hypertension, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease, we’ve seen in Kentucky and across the nation that those who are food insecure are then more likely to have type 2 diabetes or hypertension.”

Gustafson holds the Gatton Foundation Endowed Chair and is a professor in the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition in the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

She launched the Food as Health Alliance in 2022 with internal support from the Office of the Vice President for Research’s Emerging Themes Program, part of the Research Leadership Academy.

Earlier this year, the Food as Health Alliance was one of the first recipients of a research award from the American Heart Associations’s initiative Health Care by Food™. The initiative is building the evidence needed to show clinical and cost effectiveness so patients with diet-related diseases, or with risk factors for disease, can access food is medicine programs as a covered benefit through public and private health insurance.

Thanks to partnerships with UK Healthcare and Appalachian Regional Health Care, so far the Alliance’s pilot programs — with targeted approaches for rural and urban populations — have enrolled 180 adults ages 18-64 who receive Medicaid.

“Many people are using food as medicine, but we want to look at the bigger system. Are clinic providers screening for food insecurity?” Gustafson said. “We want to understand how we are going to refer those patients who have been identified as food insecure and have hypertension or type 2 diabetes. Ultimately, what kind of program or package are we going to offer them to improve their health outcomes?”

Gustafson was also recently awarded a Humana Foundation research grant in partnership with University of Louisville Health to test a nutrition intervention aimed at lower-resource families with nutrition-related conditions.

“We are excited to support Dr. Gustafson’s research on a family-level nutrition security intervention to address health outcomes and identify effective and sustainable models and approaches for food-is-medicine programs,” said Soojin Conover, Humana Foundation portfolio strategy principal. “By partnering on this research grant, we are working to create meaningful, lasting change for the communities we serve.”

“Humana has long championed innovative ways to ensure our members in Kentucky have access to the resources they need to be as healthy as possible,” said Jeb Duke, vice president and Medicaid regional president for Humana Healthy Horizons in Kentucky. “We have developed value-added benefits for our members, and we collaborate with healthcare providers and community-based organizations across the Commonwealth to address food insecurity. We’re excited about this partnership between the Humana Foundation and the University of Kentucky, and we’re looking forward to leveraging the outcomes of the research and know it will enable us to do even more to support our members.”

Gustafson says one of the main challenges to overcome is getting food directly to those who need it most. The alliance team is partnering with food delivery services such as DoorDash and Instacart, to ensure meals or meal kits are delivered.

This brings an additional challenge — many of the participants in this program do not have an active bank account. Gustafson emphasizes the need for partnerships with federal and state governments to consider waiving fees for food delivery services.

“We hope that our research informs policy. We want to show that providing food packages tailored for diabetes and hypertension to thousands of Kentucky residents will move the needle on health outcomes and food insecurity,” she said.

About the Food as Health Alliance
The Food as Health Alliance at the University of Kentucky seeks to bring together clinical and community research spanning across agriculture, food and health to address food insecurity and diet-sensitive chronic disease. Researchers, clinicians, community partners, food commodity producers, health care partners and students explore innovative strategies to improve patient clinical outcomes and the health of Kentuckians. Learn more

About the Emerging Themes for Research program
Gustafson is one of six UK researchers participating in the Research Leadership Academy’s Emerging Themes for Research program. The purpose of the program is to support emerging research that creates, grows and sustains a healthier, wealthier and wiser Kentucky. Learn more

Video produced by UK Research Communications. To view captions for this video, push play and click on the CC icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. If using a mobile device, click on the “thought bubble” in the same area.

###

The Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social status and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.