Supermarket Diet Advice to Improve DASH Adherence among people : The SuperWIN trial

The DASH diet is a healthy-eating plan designed to help treat or prevent high blood pressure. The DASH diet includes foods that are rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium. Nutritionist advice DASH Diet amonge people with cardiovascular risk, during purchase nutritional value of most of food isn't known to common man, growing technology provides some help.

A randomized controlled trial aimed at increasing diet quality and decreasing cardiovascular risk. SuperWIN was presented at American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2022 Scientific Session and it is said to deliver individualized, nutrition education at the point-of-purchase (POP), either in the aisles of the physical store or via online shopping platforms coupled with other modern software tools.

This was associated with an increased adherence to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, which emphasizes vegetables, fruits and whole grains while limiting foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar, and sodium and has been shown to lower blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

The SuperWIN trial was conducted in 13 Kroger stores in Ohio and Kentucky. The study included 267 people with at least one cardiovascular risk factor from a primary care network who regularly shopped at one of the study stores. All participants also had to be willing to follow the DASH diet, which was taught at each educational session in the trial. All participants received one "enhanced" medical nutrition therapy that was guided by the individual's own dietary intake analytics.

The strategy 1 group received six additional teaching sessions in the supermarket aisles over a 3-month period. Each session was guided by updated individualized purchasing data provided to the dietitian and the participant. The strategy 2 group received the same six additional teaching sessions as strategy 1, but they also had some additional teaching on healthy eating and meal planning from a variety of online shopping tools, and nutrition and healthcare apps.

The results of the study were

• The DASH score increased in all three groups at 3 months, with stepwise increases corresponding to the intensity of the intervention. DASH scores increased by 5.8 points in the control group, by 8.6 points in the strategy 1 group, and by 12.4 points in the strategy 2 group.

• DASH scores significantly differed between the two intervention groups and the control group (P = .02). This showed that purchasing data–guided in-store tours do increase the efficacy of dietary education.

• The difference in scores between the strategy 1 and strategy 2 groups was also significant (P = .01). This shows online enhancements increase adherence to the DASH diet.

• Secondary endpoints included blood pressure and body mass index. Systolic blood pressure decreased slightly in all three groups: by 2.8 mm Hg in the control group, 6.6 mm Hg in the strategy 1 group, and 5.7 mm Hg in the strategy 2 group. BMI was reduced by 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8, respectively, but the between-group differences were not significant.

Researchers concluded that "This is the first study of its kind to date in which scientific researchers collaborated with a large supermarket chain. We can the integrate retail-based healthcare information with traditional healthcare information. And start to look at downstream healthcare utilization and cost outcomes as well, which will be important as we start to think how to evolve the healthcare system."

reference: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03895580