Lay summary
What we do or don’t eat is the largest risk factor for global morbidity and mortality. However our dietary choices are not entirely our own, being guided by overt and covert external influences. The health consequences of our dietary choices are therefore not an individual responsibility but a systems one, requiring new solutions that support individuals.
We wish to consider the role of free grocery provision in the usual care for those recovering from a heart attack, as an equitable means to improve individual and community health. We have chosen heart attack recovery given its contribution to healthcare systems costs, and the potential of healthy foods to improve patient outcomes.
Free healthy foods for patients has not been implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand, however results from this cost effectiveness analysis may pave the way for such progressive models of health care in in the future.