{"doi":"10.1002/pmrj.12847","title":"Unique characteristics of patients who choose an intensive lifestyle medicine program to address chronic musculoskeletal pain","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Factors that motivate musculoskeletal patients to pursue an intensive, lifestyle medicine-based approach to care are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: 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 to 2021. SETTING: Orthopedic department of one academic medical center. PATIENTS: Fifty consecutive patients who enrolled in an intensive lifestyle medicine program to address a musculoskeletal condition. Comparison groups were the following: (1) 100 patients who presented for standard nonoperative musculoskeletal care, and (2) 100 patients who presented for operative evaluation by an orthopedic surgeon and qualified for joint arthroplasty. INTERVENTION: 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: vs. comparison cohorts 29.3-32.0, p < .001; diabetes prevalence: lifestyle cohort 32% vs. comparison cohorts 12%-16%, p ≤ .024). Compared to standard nonoperative patients, there were no clear between-group differences in PROMIS physical or psychological health scores. Compared to standard operative evaluation patients, patients in the lifestyle program reported worse anxiety but less pain interference (PROMIS Anxiety: B = 3.8 points [95% confidence interval, 0.1 to 7.4], p = .041; Pain interference: B = -3.6 [-6.0 to -1.2], p = .004). 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.","journal":"PM&R","year":2022,"id":291921,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9549,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":976092,"name":"Katherine Carbonell","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":764796,"name":"Heidi Prather","orcid":"0000-0003-2107-3615","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":584197,"name":"Barry A. Hong","orcid":"0000-0003-0643-0581","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":975612,"name":"Dana L. Downs","orcid":"0000-0003-0334-5090","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":855869,"name":"John P. Metzler","orcid":"0000-0003-0248-3758","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":855868,"name":"Devyani Hunt","orcid":"0000-0003-1247-3801","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":855871,"name":"Abby L. Cheng","orcid":"0000-0002-8166-0806","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:30:42.221508Z","pmid":"35567523","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}