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Students Teaching Students: Bringing Lifestyle Medicine Education to Middle and High Schools Through Student-Led Community Outreach Programs

Authors :
Simran Arjani
Andrew Bolze
Elizabeth Pegg Frates
Richard Wolferz
Source :
American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 13:371-373
Publication Year :
2019
Publisher :
SAGE Publications, 2019.

Abstract

Lifestyle medicine has the power to reverse the growing burden of chronic disease that now plagues our health care system. The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine have all independently recognized the need for community-centered lifestyle medicine education as a means of empowering individuals to take charge of their own health. Students in undergraduate, medical, and allied health schools may serve as mediators for these conversations. With guidance from faculty lifestyle medicine mentors, these students can operate as peer educators in primary and secondary schools to supplement current health teaching with the core tenants of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental and social well-being, and substance avoidance as strategies to prevent and treat chronic disease. We present models of two such student-led programs working with middle and high school students in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Both programs have found success by engaging middle and high school students in interactive workshops and by responding to their individual interests and community needs. We share our currently available resources and, moving forward, hope to publish a tested curriculum that students around the country can implement in their communities to promote lifestyle medicine.

Details

ISSN :
15598284 and 15598276
Volume :
13
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....52c79f07d4fd3fd1aaae41a1cbf50093
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827619836970