Written by Kimiko Dunbar
Spoon Feed
Community Rx-Hunger is a scalable social care assistance intervention initiated during pediatric hospitalization that helped reduce healthcare utilization but did not improve caregivers reported self-efficacy in finding community resources.
Help me, help you
Families with food insecurity are less likely to receive routine medical care and thus may be more at risk of hospitalization. Community Rx-Hunger is a low-intensity intervention (i.e. requires minimal human effort) that provides resources through education about common social conditions, personalized information about local resources, navigator support with automated text messages, and ongoing opportunities for participants to initiate additional requests. This randomized clinical trial examined whether low-intensity social care referrals via Community Rx-Hunger reduce acute health care utilization in children. Conducted across two urban pediatric clinics (N = 1,809), families were randomized to receive either standard care or Community Rx-Hunger. Authors hypothesized that inclusion of Community Rx-Hunger would increase self-efficacy for finding resources; however, results from the study were mixed. There was no significant difference in caregiver-reported self-efficacy, but authors did note a decrease in healthcare utilization. During 12 months postdischarge, 54 food insecure children (41%) had 1 or more ED visits (median, 0; range, 0-32; intervention, 30%; control, 52%; IRR, 0.40; 95%CI, 0.21-0.76) and 32 had 1 or more hospitalizations (24%) (median, 0; range, 0-5; intervention, 15%; control, 34%; IRR, 0.48; 95%CI, 0.21-1.06). This study was limited by self-reported outcomes and confounding of change in public understanding of resources in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How does this change my practice?
Overall, this article highlights the need for more effective means of supporting patients in a comprehensive way after hospital discharge. In this study, resources were provided to all patients, regardless of expressed need. There was significant engagement even in those without expressed need, reinforcing the value of providing resources to all families even if initial screening is reassurring.
Source
Low-Intensity Social Care and Child Acute Health Care Utilization: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2025 Jun 1;179(6):610-620. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0484. PMID: 40293738
