Nourish: a healthcare-community partnership to improve nutrition insecurity for optimal glycemic control and pregnancy outcomes with pregestational diabetes - nutrition insecurity (inclusive of food…

The National Institute of Nursing Research, part of the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, awarded The Ohio State University $2,982,199 on September 26, 2025, under the Nursing Research program (CFDA 93.361) to conduct research on the NOURISH intervention—a healthcare-community partnership designed to improve nutrition insecurity, glycemic control, and pregnancy outcomes for pregnant women with pregestational diabetes.

The NOURISH intervention comprises three integrated components: weekly nutritious produce home delivery through Mid-Ohio Farmacy (MOF+), monthly clinic-integrated diabetes, nutrition, and culinary group education delivered by OSU Cooperative Extension's Dining with Diabetes Program (DWD), and continuous community health worker-led social needs assessment and support through the Health Impact Ohio Central Ohio Pathways Hub (Hub). The research tests whether the combined NOURISH intervention achieves better glycemic control and pregnancy outcomes compared to standard care.

The award funds research activities at Columbus, Ohio, with a period of performance extending through June 30, 2030. The Regents of the University of Michigan, through its Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, received a sub-award (R01NR021867-GR142801) dated May 12, 2026, supporting collaborative research components within the same NOURISH framework.

Nourish: a healthcare-community partnership to improve nutrition insecurity for optimal glycemic control and pregnancy outcomes with pregestational diabetes - nutrition insecurity (inclusive of food insecurity + poor diet quality) is a fundamental non-medical, health- related social need that impacts >20% of pregnant women and up to 50% of individuals with pregestational diabetes in the united states. Nutrition insecurity has devastating health consequences for the >100,000 pregnant women with pregestational diabetes (type 1 or 2) and their exposed infants every year for whom a healthy diet is critical. Pregnant women with pregestational diabetes and nutrition insecurity are more likely to experience poor glycemic control, and as a result, adverse pregnancy outcomes. The risk of these adverse health outcomes increases when glycemic control is not achieved and social needs go unaddressed. Enhancing healthy food access and providing nutrition education-i.e., building "nutrition security"-is critical to improving outcomes for pregnant women with diabetes and poor glycemic control. Our transdisciplinary team designed nourish: a theory- and evidence-based and collaborative healthcare-community partnership to enhance healthy food access, provide nutrition education and support, and address unmet social needs to improve glycemic control and pregnancy outcomes for high- risk pregnant women with pregestational diabetes, poor glycemic control, and food insecurity. We propose the tripartite sustainable nourish intervention: 1) weekly nutritious produce home delivery by the mid- ohio farmacy (MOF+), 2) monthly clinic-integrated diabetes, nutrition, and culinary group education by the OSU cooperative extension's dining with diabetes program (DWD), and 3) continuous community health worker-led social needs assessment and support by the health impact ohio central ohio pathways hub (hub). Our central hypothesis is the combined nourish intervention (MOF + DWD + hub) versus standard care will achieve glycemic control (hemoglobin A1C