Anxiety and Depression Recovery Program

Grantee: Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $30,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: This project will study the hypothesis that the incorporation of mental health education in combination with lifestyle education has positive benefits in improving mental health in marginalized communities.

• To improve mental health education and resources among individuals in historically marginalized communities.

• To improve self-efficacy in the management of anxiety and depression in individuals in historically marginalized communities.

• To increase healthy lifestyle habits in the management of anxiety and depression in individuals in historically marginalized communities.

This project will utilize an evidence-based 8-week anxiety and depression educational and lifestyle program. Anticipated outcomes include improved awareness of mental health issues in marginalized communities, reduced stigma, and improvements in self-reported mental health.

MGH Revere Food Pantry: Healthy Families Clinic and Teaching Kitchen Program: Year Three

Grantee: Massachusetts General Hospital

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $126,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: With the Ardmore Institute of Health's support, MGH Revere Food Pantry: Healthy Families Clinic and Teaching Kitchen Program is modeling a Lifestyle Medicine program that showcases the power of a "Food Is Medicine" approach to sustainably and meaningfully improving community health. With the establishment of a program focused on healthy foods, patient education and empowerment, psychosocial support, and rigorous evaluation, the MGH Revere Food Pantry will stand apart from other organizations. It will be a pioneering example of a healthy lifestyle clinical and research program for the entire family addressing social determinants of health. Funding will support the third year of the three-year demonstration project targeting families receiving care from MGH Revere; have a teaching kitchen component; and will emphasize chronic disease management for hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Specific year 3 goals include: 1) Evaluate improvements in food insecurity, child health, and parental health over a 6-month period, and 2) Conduct a Needs Assessment for how to best bring families into the teaching kitchen.

"F!reF!ghterF!t”: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Lifestyle Coaching Interventions for Obese Firefighters

Grantee: Cambridge Health Alliance

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $100,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: RATIONALE/GOALS: Obesity is a major health hazard in the US fire service. It contributes to excess cancer, cardiovascular disease and behavioral health issues. Obesity is negatively associated with 12/13 health priorities identified by the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation. Mitigating obesity is crucial to the fire service’s goals of reducing chronic diseases and their adverse economic/operational impacts.

METHODS: At least 75 male firefighters self-reporting a body mass index (BMI) of >/= 30 kg/m2 AND interest in weight loss will complete a baseline health assessment including: lifestyle scores, body composition, metabolic/hormonal indices, physical fitness, and behavioral health screens, until 50 eligible firefighters have been consented and enrolled. After the initial clinical evaluation, 50 eligible firefighters will be randomized into the two study groups (about 25 firefighters to each arm): 1. General Health Instructions (CONTROL) and 2. Individual & Group Lifestyle Coaching based on the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine & Full Plate Living. Participants will repeat the all health/fitness measures at 3-, 6- and 9-months post study entry. The two treatment groups will be compared on an intention to treat basis.

ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES: Compared to CONTROL, firefighters receiving the Lifestyle Coaching Intervention should achieve significantly greater improvements in body composition, metabolic & other health measures, as well as adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Phase 3 Advancing Lifestyle Medicine among all Health Professionals

Grantee: American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $75,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Goals: To increase access to lifestyle medicine (LM) and close gaps in health equity by growing the LM workforce

Methodology: Through outreach and educational programming, LM education, tools and resources will be more widely distributed to the healthcare workforce, thus increasing the amount of healthcare workers throughout the United States who can utilize LM within their practice. Through academic and industry engagement and publications, policy makers, academia, health systems, and funders will gain access to information about the LM workforce composition, current LM work environments, and what the future LM workforce might look like.

Anticipated outcomes:

-Through ACLM’s Partial and Full Academic Pathways, increased student access to health professions programs throughout the US offering educational content aligning with the 2022 Core Competencies in Lifestyle Medicine

-Delivery of tailored LM resource packages including high-quality training and complementary patient-facing material for workforce segments essential to public health including community health workers (CHWs), nurses, and community health specialists

-Increased numbers of qualified healthcare professionals taking the ACLM certification exam

-Research publications strategically placed to inform healthcare policy makers, health funders, and health professions faculty about the LM workforce and educational needs of this multidisciplinary group of healthcare workers

The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC) Multisite Curriculum Study, UTHealth Houston SPH Site – Year 2

Grantee: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $75,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: The Teaching Kitchen (TK) Multisite Trial is an innovative program that combines evidence-based nutrition education with culinary learning for behavior change. This study aims to assess the feasibility and preliminary impact of the TK program on health outcomes and well-being across different sites and sociodemographic populations.

The specific aims are:

Aim 1: To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a multidisciplinary TK lifestyle intervention among diverse urban, suburban, and rural-dwelling adults.

Aim 2: To identify the barriers and facilitators to effectively implementing the TK culinary and lifestyle intervention in clinical- and community-based settings using a mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) evaluation.

Aim 3: To assess the preliminary effectiveness of the TK culinary and lifestyle education intervention by comparing changes between the intervention and wait-list control groups from pre- to post-intervention.

This study is a randomized controlled trial of adults (n = 320) who have overweight or class I-II obesity (BMI 25-39.9) and at least one metabolic disease marker (including fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c; liver function; or fasting lipid profile).

Participants (n = 50 at the UTHealth site, 25 per group) in Cohort 2 will be measured at baseline, after the 16-week intensive culinary and lifestyle intervention (4 months), at the end of the intervention program (12 months), and after a 6-month follow-up period (18 months).

Community of Hope Healthy Lifestyle Program

Grantee: Community of Hope

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $17,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Community of Hope will offer the Healthy Lifestyle Program, an eight-week group health education initiative for patients with chronic diseases, three times in the grant period at our Marie Reed Health Center. This program will use the Full Plate Living Healthy Lifestyle Program® curriculum, and patients will increase their knowledge of how good nutrition, physical activity, and mindfulness can improve health outcomes. Additionally, patients will utilize the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) model to set goals that incorporate healthy nutrition practices, physical activity, and mindfulness strategies into their weekly routine. By the end of eight weeks, patients will achieve at least one of their goals. By the end of the program, patients will also have increased self-efficacy and improved health outcomes related to chronic disease management and emotional wellness, such as blood pressure control and sleep quality.

Teaming Up with Public Health: Lifestyle Medicine

Grantee: American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $250,000

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is committed to enhancing health outcomes for families and communities through the integration of lifestyle medicine into mainstream primary care. Emphasizing collaboration and partnership development, this project will break down silos by identifying ways to align strategies, programs, and processes across primary care providers, public health, and community-based organizations using whole person health approaches through a health equity framework.

The proposed resources will help establish the nomenclature and a shared language for understanding across family medicine, public health, and community-based organizations. The goals for this project are to 1) Leverage existing materials and develop resources to increase awareness and understanding of the whole person health approach among AAFP members; 2) Provide support and technical assistance to a cohort of family medicine practices; and 3) Document lessons learned and disseminate findings across public health, lifestyle medicine, and family medicine audiences.

Anticipated outcomes of this project are 1) Increased availability and access to technical assistance, products, and other resources; 2) Increased awareness and understanding of whole person health concepts among AAFP members; and 3) Increased awareness of findings and tools. This project will strengthen the system infrastructure needed to equitably implement whole person health approaches into family medicine.

Effectiveness and Implementation of the PAVING the Path to Wellness Lifestyle Medicine program

Grantee: PAVING the Path to Wellness

Year Funded: 2024

Amount: $75,988

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Lifestyle medicine has the potential to address the chronic disease epidemic, but a lack of dissemination and implementation (D&I) research has prevented its widespread adoption into clinical and community settings. This project will examine the effectiveness and implementation of the PAVING the Path to Wellness lifestyle medicine program to both improve program delivery and lay foundational knowledge to advance clinical and public health practice in the lifestyle medicine space.

Through this hybrid effectiveness-implementation design, we will:

1) Assess the impact of the PAVING program on the lifestyle medicine health behaviors using a validated pre/post- survey with at least 15 cohorts of 6-20 PAVING participants. We anticipate that the PAVING program will improve health behaviors.

2) Identify the barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation and growth of the program through semi-structured qualitative interviews with PAVING leaders and participants. Implementation constructs including program acceptability, adaptability, process, and sustainability will be assessed. We anticipate that the interviews will elicit critical insights to support program implementation.

The project will rigorously evaluate the PAVING the Path to Wellness program and promote the scaling of lifestyle medicine by providing a blueprint for other programs to better translate from research to practice.

Convening: Teaching Kitchens as catalysts of enhanced healthcare delivery

Grantee: The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, Inc

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $100,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

N-PALMS: Nutrition and Physical Activity in Lifestyle Medicine Services

Grantee: University of Mississippi Medical Center

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $63,940.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: The N-PALMS program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) serves to increase nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among adult patients in Lifestyle Medicine Clinic (LMC). The goal is to create on-site (within existing LMC) Full Plate Living (FPL) and Exercise is Medicine (EIM) services as well as partner with a local YMCA to embed these services in a gym setting. A growing body of evidence supports the lifestyle medicine approach as an effective strategy to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. However, there is a need for insight into operationalizing the adoption of these services into mainstream healthcare as well as determination of optimal delivery locations. Leveraging the success of the existing LMC, this project will provide evidence of the importance of helping patients operationalize lifestyle prescriptions. Additionally, this project will serve to highlight the necessary personnel and space for optimal LM delivery.

Advancing Lifestyle Medicine activities within Integrative Medicine in Residency (IMR) Training

Grantee: The University of Arizona Foundation fbo The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $50,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: AWCIM will create and implement a novel and engaging Lifestyle Medicine (LM) Activity Module, consisting of twelve (12) prescribed activities for medical residents to engage in either alone or with peers.  The LM Activity Module will allow for a deeper experience and understanding of the principles of LM.  When embedded into mainstream residency training, the LM Activity Module will significantly enrich residents’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills in LM and increase their ability to counsel and recommend LM interventions for patients.  The project will be designed to increase LM visibility with the ultimate goal of training all residents in LM and encouraging more physicians to formally pursue LM training and board certification, thus improving the health of our communities.

Saint Francis Lifestyle Medicine Program

Grantee: Saint Francis Hospital, Inc.

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $69,350.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: The Saint Francis Lifestyle Medicine program introduces patients to the key concepts of Lifestyle Medicine using Shared Medical Appointments in the setting of a teaching kitchen and  Shared Medical Appointments. Program objectives include instilling confidence in patients to begin their own healthy culinary journeys through the skills they learn during these sessions and equipping them with the information to accomplish vital tasks like grocery shopping, reading food labels, and meal planning all of which have a decisive impact on health. Other objectives include increasing physical activity; improving sleep hygiene, sleep quality and sleep duration; learning and developing techniques to better handle stress; understanding the importance of living with purpose and positive connections; and knowing the harms of risky substances. This will be achieved using a multidisciplinary team-based approach consisting of a board-certified Lifestyle Medicine physician, a professional chef, a registered dietician, a licensed therapist and an exercise physiologist in the setting of the hospital gym. The use of validated survey tools and software applications will allow us to continually monitor the effectiveness of the program, improve it, and expand it to more populations.

Scaling “Community As Medicine” via YMCA Partnerships

Grantee: Open Source Wellness

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $60,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Open Source Wellness (OSW) will partner with a diverse cohort of YMCAs from around the country to catalyze the design, implementation, and evaluation of “Community As Medicine” health coaching programs.  This model is designed to combat social isolation and uplift the universal practices that underlie health and wellbeing MOVE (physical activity), NOURISH (plant-forward nutrition), CONNECT (social support), and BE (stress reduction) in partnership with clinical healthcare providers and payers.  Core elements and values integral to this approach include trauma-informed health coaching, transdiagnostic group coaching, cultural humility, joy, and belonging.

Key activities include providing technical assistance to YMCAs in building individual and group health coaching programs, and supporting YMCAs in developing strong referral relationships with local Federally Qualified Health Centers. 

Key outcomes are financial sustainability, strong data and analytics of patient health data, and supporting YMCAs in achieving their missions related to health equity, community engagement, and participation in their local healthcare ecosystems.

Exercise is Medicine Lifestyle Medicine (EIM-LM) pilot program

Grantee: Ohio State University Foundation

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $20,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Obesity is a risk factor for many chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke. Modifiable risk factors at the individual level which contribute heavily to obesity and obesity-related chronic disease include diet, activity level, sedentary behavior, sleep quality, and stress. The Exercise is Medicine-Lifestyle Medicine (EIM-LM) program provides the framework, guidance, and practice for individuals to modify their risk towards obesity and obesity-related chronic disease.

The EIM-LM program provides participants with weekly facilitated in-person group sessions over several weeks introducing and incorporating the six American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) pillars. The six pillars are “a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections.” Sessions integrate each pillar in a variety of ways including group exercise, handouts, facilitated discussion, hands-on plant based cooking, and mindfulness. The focus is active participation and practice incorporating the pillars into everyday life. We anticipate reductions in weight, systolic blood pressure, depressive symptoms, and stress, alongside increases in physical activity, whole plant-based food consumption, and goal setting among participants who complete the program. The pilot will last one year with four group sessions.

Culinary Medicine and Nutrition Curriculum for All Residents-in-Training at MedStar Health

Grantee: MedStar Health

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $100,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: MedStar Health’s Culinary Medicine and Nutrition Curriculum for Residents-in-Training provides MedStar residents (as well as other Graduate Medical Education trainees, including interns and fellows) with education on nutrition’s role in improving health outcomes, as well as training in how to speak with patients and administer nutrition education. The program will instruct residents of all 32 specialties at MedStar Health on the benefits of healthy eating and how to counsel patients to adopt healthier habits and nutrition specific to each of their needs, with the ultimate goal of forging culinary medicine into a foundational component of the delivery of care in the US healthcare system. Our goal for the first year of the program is to train 100 of our residents and have them apply that training to improve the nutrition literacy of their patients, promote healthier nutrition, experience fewer complications from poor nutrition, promote equitable healthcare, and ultimately lower healthcare costs in the long term.

Rural Lifestyle Medicine Pilot Program

Grantee: Lake Region Healthcare Corporation

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $31,500.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Lifestyle Medicine (LM) is the foundational approach to addressing chronic disease, the leading cause of death in the US. Our project aims to enhance our LM practice, improve its effectiveness in promoting and supporting sustainable and proven lifestyle interventions, and make it more accessible to our rural community. To achieve this goal, we need to strengthen our infrastructure through education and networking, purchase of technology, and offering nutrition education.

Our proposal includes LM certification through the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine of our providers and health professionals and sending team members to the Lifestyle Medicine Conference (LMC). The training will expand our LM team’s scope of practice and help them better coordinate patient care. Additionally, attending the LMC will help our team build professional relationships that will help us grow our LM practice.

We will purchase videoconferencing equipment allowing our LM team to offer their services virtually and expand access to care. We will also be piloting WHOOP, a fitness tracker, and use the data obtained to supplement our LM intervention and help our patients optimize their health. Lastly, we will partner with our local community stakeholders to offer hands-on learning labs to show people how to grow, prep, and cook vegetables and how to effectively shop to stock a healthy pantry.

Through our project, we expect to improve health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and access to LM services.

Healing Dayton by Treating the Cause at the Point of Contact: Phase 1 to Build Expertise and Cement Community Partnerships

Grantee: Kettering Adventist Health

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $69,019.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Kettering Health’s vision of whole person care aligns with AIH strategic goal 1-Establish Lifestyle Medicine (LM) as a foundational component of the delivery of care in the U.S. healthcare system by bringing LM into the mainstream of clinical practice so that clinicians are trained, tested and certified.

Objective 1- Build a Critical Mass of Lifestyle Medicine Expertise and Leadership across Kettering Health. Currently, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine curriculum is available to internal medicine, family medicine, and cardiology training programs. There is also a formal LM track in the internal medicine training program. We have a multi-pronged approach to build our capacity and expertise in LM.

Objective 2- Redesign Medical Training Programs to Make Lifestyle Medicine the Foundation for Curriculum. For our internal medicine and family medicine residencies and cardiology fellowship, we will redesign the curriculum, developing hands-on rotations with community partners. We will engage with all physician training programs to promote integration of LM into the curriculum.

Objective 3- Planning Pilot Lifestyle Medicine Healthcare Delivery Models in Underserved Areas. We will leverage community partnerships to bring whole person care to underserved areas of Dayton. Initial contacts include cooking classes and health lectures. We will also visit Loma Linda University Health System to investigate best practices and sustainable whole person care.

Virtual Latino/a Culinary & Lifestyle Medicine Sessions

Grantee: Inland Wellness Information Network

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $27,500.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Latino/a Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine physicians will introduce an online teaching kitchen curriculum entitled, “Latino/a Conversations: Food, Health and Cultura,” to educate individuals on the importance of healthy, plant-focused nutrition for mitigating cardiometabolic disease and provide practical application into daily food choices and preparation. The goal is to create an online presence by partnering regionally as well as statewide with our current national community-based organizations (VacunateYa, California Medical Association, Physicians for a Healthy California, Latino Health Collaborative, etc.). We hope this will equip individuals to then enthusiastically share this information with their respective communities. We also want to provide the "how to" skills in a teaching kitchen program by creating plant-forward, culturally-appropriate dishes and measure confidence and self-efficacy in adopting this pattern to other common meals participants have in their pattern of eating. A major part of our focus is to instill a sense of empowerment for individuals to take control of their own health trajectories going forward for themselves and their family members. We intend to provide an inclusive activity that teaches, inspires and contributes to achievable and favorable health outcomes in a safe, non judgmental and positive environment.

Whole Health Kids

Grantee: Edible Education Experience, Inc.

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $50,000.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: Whole Health Kids invites low-income students in Central Florida to experience the natural cycle of food from seed to table, with the goal of deepening their understanding of food systems and increasing their motivation to eat healthy whole foods. Reflecting our goal to encourage examination of multifaceted systems, a field trip to EEE involves a well-rounded exploration of the people, histories, natural processes, and scientific principles involved in the food journey. In this field trip series, students explore the natural and sustainable systems of the Culinary Garden, and harvest organic ingredients for a plant-based lunch. Then, they take part in an interactive demonstration of a recipe or cooking technique aligned with the curriculum topic, led by experienced educators and chefs. Finally, we synthesize what we’ve learned in our teaching kitchen, where students collaborate to cook scratch-made dishes and practice the hard and soft skills involved in the kitchen. Lunchtime features a reflection of the field trip's impact on students. Critical thinking, confidence, and collaboration are the touchstones we return to to examine whether the experiences we give children will have lasting impacts. Student success stories often tell us of children who are cooking at home and trying new foods. These students are becoming more autonomous in their own relationship with food, as well as influencing healthy and socially fulfilling eating habits in their families and communities.

Enhancing and Evaluating a Lifestyle Medicine Clinic in Southwest Virginia

Grantee: Carilion Medical Center

Year Funded: 2023

Amount: $97,600.00

Report Status: Report not posted

Related Content: none

Project Summary: The goals of this project are to:

- enhance the quality of care provided in a Lifestyle Medicine (LM) clinic serving a medically underserved patient population in southwest Virginia (SWVA) through multi-level evaluation

- advance knowledge of factors associated with successful LM program implementation 

- advance the field of LM through experiential learning for residents, dissemination of scholarly work, and sharing of resources.

We will automate the maintenance of a LM patient registry. This effort will improve data quality and reduce the burden of registry maintenance, enhancing the registry’s utility for evaluating outcomes. Registry data from the clinic’s first year and additional patient survey and care team interviews will be used to evaluate clinical outcomes and factors associated with successful LM program implementation. Finally, we will refine and pilot test resources for conducting LM group educational visits in medically underserved populations in SWVA.

Outcomes include:

- Automated data extraction and upload process for the LM registry.

- Impact of LM clinic participation on clinical outcomes.

- Factors associated with LM program retention, treatment success, and program satisfaction.

- Implementation of LM group education visits tailored to patients in SWVA in a Family Medicine Residency program and a local federally qualified health center.

- Scholarly presentations and publications at LM and research conferences.