Application and Outcomes of Interprofessional Lifestyle Medicine Programs Designed for People with Musculoskeletal Conditions

Lifestyle behaviors contribute to the development and progression of painful musculoskeletal conditions. Currently, lifestyle medicine predominantly advocates for treatment of identified chronic lifestyle-related diseases. However strong evidence also supports the use of lifestyle medicine to address musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction. Further, lifestyle-related chronic diseases commonly co-exist in people with painful musculoskeletal conditions, both of which are rooted in chronic systemic inflammation. This session will review the evidence linking chronic systemic inflammation and musculoskeletal conditions as they apply to each of the six pillars of health. The session will also discuss unique standardized programmatic lifestyle medicine approaches to treat musculoskeletal patients and improve global health, and we will review outcomes data from interprofessional lifestyle medicine programs for musculoskeletal patients. Our outcomes from two different programs in geographically diverse areas demonstrate the benefit of lifestyle medicine delivery through interprofessional team programs that improve lifestyle-related chronic diseases and pain and function in people with musculoskeletal conditions. These data suggest that a musculoskeletal condition involving pain and reduced function can be the gateway for many people to progress to an active state of behavioral change. Musculoskeletal providers should join in the efforts to promote education, research, and the application of lifestyle medicine in relationship to musculoskeletal conditions to enable patients to improve pain and function, and to improve global health.