Session Information
Session Title: AA 2022 Posters - Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine
Session Time: None. Available on demand.
Disclosures: Katherine V. Carbonell: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Background and/or Objectives: To determine whether, compared to patients seeking musculoskeletal care through traditional pathways, patients who choose an intensive lifestyle medicine program for musculoskeletal pain endorse greater physical dysfunction, worse psychological health, and/or more biopsychosocial comorbidities.
Design: Cross-sectional analysis of existing medical records from 2018-2021.
Setting: Orthopedic department of one academic medical center.
Participants: 50 consecutive patients who enrolled in an intensive lifestyle medicine program to address a musculoskeletal condition. Comparison groups were: 1.) 100 patients who presented for standard non-operative musculoskeletal care, and 2.) 100 patients who presented for operative evaluation by an orthopedic surgeon and qualified for joint arthroplasty.
Interventions: Interventions: not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures: Primary outcomes were age-adjusted, between-group differences in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) physical and psychological health measures. Secondary outcomes were between-group differences in sociodemographic and medical history characteristics.
Results: Patients who enrolled in the intensive lifestyle medicine program were more racially diverse (non-white race: lifestyle cohort 34% versus comparison cohorts 16-18%, p≤.029) and had a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes than both comparison groups (mean body mass index: lifestyle cohort 37.6 kg/m2 versus comparison cohorts 29.3-32.0, p
Conclusions: Compared to musculoskeletal patients who sought care through traditional pathways, patients who chose an intensive lifestyle medicine pathway had a higher prevalence of metabolic comorbidities, but there was substantial overlap in patients’ physical, psychological, and sociodemographic characteristics.
Level of Evidence: Level III
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Carbonell KV, Cheng AL, Prather H, Metzler J, Hunt D. Unique Characteristics of Musculoskeletal Patients Who Choose an Intensive Lifestyle Medicine Program Compared to Patients Who Pursue Standard Non-operative or Operative Musculoskeletal Care [abstract]. PM R. 2022; 14(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/unique-characteristics-of-musculoskeletal-patients-who-choose-an-intensive-lifestyle-medicine-program-compared-to-patients-who-pursue-standard-non-operative-or-operative-musculoskeletal-care/. Accessed May 17, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2022
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/unique-characteristics-of-musculoskeletal-patients-who-choose-an-intensive-lifestyle-medicine-program-compared-to-patients-who-pursue-standard-non-operative-or-operative-musculoskeletal-care/