Washington State’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program: Improving Affordability of Healthy Foods for Low-Income Patients
IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION — Volume 16 — July 18, 2019
PEER REVIEWED
Prescribing sites and participating supermarkets are clustered in population centers of King County, Snohomish County, Yakima County, and Spokane County. These areas also have higher percentages of households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits relative to other areas of the state.
Figure 1.
Percentage of households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by census tract and location of prescribing sites and participating supermarkets, Washington State’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, 2016–2018. Resources: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, American Community Survey, 2012–2016; clinic data, Healthy Eating Active Living Program, Washington State Department of Health.
Figure 2.
Quarterly redemption rate of prescriptions for all implementing partners combined, Washington State’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, July 2016–June 2018. Redemption rates were calculated by dividing the number of prescriptions redeemed by the number of prescriptions distributed over the specified time period.
| Year and Quarter | Number of Prescriptions Issued | Number of Prescriptions Redeemed | Prescription Redemption % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-Q3 | 884 | 376 | 42.5 |
| 2016-Q4 | 2180 | 1645 | 75.5 |
| 2017-Q1 | 3221 | 2360 | 73.3 |
| 2017-Q2 | 3252 | 1582 | 48.6 |
| 2017-Q3 | 3640 | 1466 | 40.3 |
| 2017-Q4 | 3640 | 1760 | 48.4 |
| 2018-Q1 | 5164 | 2618 | 50.7 |
| 2018-Q2 | 6500 | 3674 | 56.5 |
Figure 3.
Dollar amount spent on fruit and vegetable purchases per prescription redeemed, Washington State’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, July 2016–July 2018.
| Dollar Amount | No. of Prescriptions Redeemed |
|---|---|
| 0.01–5.00 | 91 |
| 5.01–10.00 | 588 |
| 10.01–15.00 | 10,025 |
| 15.01–20.00 | 2,217 |
| 20.01–25.00 | 1,093 |
| 25.01–30.00 | 529 |
| >30.00 | 938 |
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