Darius Tandon, PhD Secures Prestigious PCORI Award to Advance Maternal and Child Health

March 19, 2025

Darius Tandon, PhD, Chief of the Division of Intervention Science at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Medical Social Sciences, has been awarded a highly competitive award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to support an innovative study leveraging home visiting programs to address gestational diabetes. PCORI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding studies that improve patient outcomes, has recognized Tandon’s work as instrumental in shaping policies and interventions that directly impact maternal well-being. This latest project adds to Tandon’s growing portfolio of research awards, highlighting his leadership in securing critical funding for initiatives that address disparities in maternal and child healthcare access and outcomes.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Brown University and California Polytechnic State University will investigate the effectiveness of using home visiting programs as a platform for delivering medically tailored meals to pregnant individuals and new mothers. This "food as medicine" approach aims to improve diet quality as a means of preventing and managing gestational diabetes, a condition with significant health implications for both mothers and their children.

Tandon, who has been working in the home visiting field for two decades, emphasized the potential of these programs as a setting for delivering health interventions. “Home visiting programs already have established infrastructure and trusted relationships with families. This makes them an ideal avenue for introducing interventions like medically tailored meals, which can have a meaningful impact on maternal health,” said Tandon.

Joining Tandon on the study is co-investigator Jenny Jia, MD, from Northwestern University’s Department of Preventive Medicine. Jia specializes in nutrition-based interventions for perinatal populations, making this project a natural fit for her expertise. Researchers from Northwestern University, Brown University, and California Polytechnic State University will be leading parallel efforts to integrate the medically tailored meal intervention into home visiting programs in their respective regions, ensuring a representative and comprehensive examination of the intervention’s effectiveness.

Study participants will be recruited through home visiting programs in the Midwest (Northwestern), the East Coast (Brown), and the West Coast (California Polytechnic State University). These programs, which—depending on the home visiting model--employ paraprofessionals or nurses--will receive training on the study protocol and intervention delivery. This study uses a randomized controlled trial design in which participants will receive either a gestational diabetes lifestyle intervention with medically tailored meals or the lifestyle intervention only.

Data collection will include both self-reported measures from participants and clinical assessments, such as blood glucose monitoring, to evaluate the intervention’s impact. Primary outcomes will be assessed via a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test to determine healthy glucose tolerance and finger stick to assess Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. Researchers anticipate that participants receiving medically tailored meals will show improved dietary patterns and, ultimately, better management or prevention of gestational diabetes.

“There is growing interest in food-as-medicine approaches, but there is limited empirical research on their effectiveness, particularly for gestational diabetes,” said Tandon. “This study aims to fill that gap and provide valuable insights into how medically tailored meals can be integrated into existing home visiting programs to improve maternal health outcomes.” The study will begin in April 2025 and span five years.

The potential implications of this research extend beyond the study itself. Home visiting programs exist in all 50 states and are supported by both federal and state funding. If the intervention proves successful, it could serve as a scalable model for integrating medically tailored meals into home visiting programs nationwide. Congratulations, Darius, on this impactful work!