Why lifestyle medicine?

Jeffrey I. Mechanick, Robert F. Kushner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The question 'Why Lifestyle Medicine?' is answered by discussing the concept of chronic diseases and their increased prevalence rates that are resistant to current care models. The great burden of this problem is described and the need for a new chronic disease care model is proposed. Epidemiological dimensions as well as issues with health messaging and campaigns that are scalable to address this problem are presented. A new lifestyle medicine paradigm that incorporates the facets of preventive medicine, wellness, and health promotion, and disease complexity and residual risk is proposed and involves novel tools and metrics, such as the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) and the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). In short, the need for lifestyle medicine is based on persistent drivers of chronic disease and inadequacy of current care models to address complexity, residual risk, and challenging health-care socioeconomics.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLifestyle Medicine
Subtitle of host publicationA Manual for Clinical Practice
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages1-8
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9783319246871
ISBN (Print)9783319246857
DOIs
StatePublished - 18 Mar 2016

Keywords

  • Chronic disease
  • Disease complexity
  • Health promotion
  • Lifestyle medicine
  • Preventive medicine

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