Perspectives on a Lifestyle Medicine Fellowship Curriculum From Interested Medical Students

Background. Lifestyle behaviors have a significant effect on preventing and treating disease, yet there is minimal graduate medical training in lifestyle medicine (LM). LM stakeholders’ perspectives regarding components of a LM fellowship have been examined. However, the student perspective has not been studied. Methods. A cross-sectional study design analyzed medical student perceptions surrounding LM domains and educational experiences. A Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and a Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test were performed for each topic. Results. In all, 21 medical students completed the survey. All domains (nutrition, physical activity, behavior change, stress resiliency, and personal health), except smoking cessation, were rated as important or very important by at least 75% of the respondents (P = .002). The 4 highest-rated educational experiences, by at least 69% of respondents, included developing LM interventions and health promotion programs, clinical experiences, and teaching other health care provid...