“Health Equity-Driven Lifestyle Medicine: Essential Lessons for Every Lifestyle Medicine Provider” - Highlights from the LM2025 Conference Session

Abstract

Health equity remains a central yet insufficiently integrated priority within lifestyle medicine (LM). Although LM offers evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat chronic disease, its impact is limited when interventions fail to account for the social determinants of health (SDOH) shaping patient behavior and access. Despite growing appreciation of the importance of screening for and addressing social drivers of health, knowledge, skills, and resource gaps remain for many LM practitioners. This innovation report synthesizes key insights from the LM2025 conference session and translates them into a practical, equity-centered framework. We propose a three-domain model emphasizing (1) prioritization of populations experiencing health disparities, (2) context-sensitive application of lifestyle interventions, and (3) delivery of culturally relevant, community-engaged care. We illustrate application through a pediatric case and highlight the Family Lifestyle Program Produce Prescription (FLiPRx) as a scalable model of health equity-driven LM. We further examine biological pathways linking social adversity to chronic disease and describe how lifestyle interventions mitigate these effects. Additionally, we highlight a multisector collaboration between a hospital, health department and churches as a model for achieving health equity. This framework offers clinicians and health systems a practical pathway to integrate equity into LM practice while advancing population health outcomes.