Online Lifestyle Medicine Continuing Medical Education (CME) Course Completion Predicts Increases in Clinician Knowledge, Confidence, and Practice of Lifestyle Medicine
<b>Introduction:</b> Despite growing evidence linking lifestyle changes to disease reversal, lifestyle medicine (LM) is not widely practiced. Lack of clinician training and knowledge is cited as a barrier to LM adoption. This study measures changes in LM knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and practice behaviors following completion of a 5.5-h, asynchronous, online continuing medical education (CME) course. <b>Methods:</b> Participants completed a pre- and post-course survey. A repeated-measures linear model tested changes in knowledge, confidence, interest, experience, and practice of LM, after adjusting for age, gender, race, ethnicity, clinical degree/licensure, and presence of a health system value-based care model. <b>Results:</b> Surveys from n = 2954 course participants were analyzed. Overall, statistically significant improvements were observed in self-reported knowledge (+.47 of points) and confidence (+.53 of points) of LM. Participants across the sample reported greater frequency (+.08 of 5 points) and reach (+.10 of 5 points) of LM with their patients (p<.0001 for both). <b>Discussion:</b> This study demonstrated that a brief, scalable, online CME course can improve LM knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and practice. Future research should examine long-term practice changes as well as differences in outcomes across types of healthcare professionals.
Authors
- Joel Gittelsohn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2761-3280)
- Kelly Freeman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9429-0886)
- Paulina Shetty
- Micaela Cook Karlsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9365-151X)
- Meghan L Ames (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0083-8159)
- Alexandra Kees
- Kara A. Livingston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0998-1178)
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of New England (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
- Published
- 2024-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276241279523
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Obesity and Health Practices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.83