The effect of human immunodeficiency virus on functional recovery in hospitalized patients with stroke

Background and Objective: Given the known association between inflammatory conditions and stroke, this study was designed to assess whether the diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) – which is associated with chronic inflammation – would affect the functional trajectory of patients hospitalized for the treatment of stroke. Methods: This is a retrospective study comparing the functional outcomes of 688,066 stroke patients with a diagnosis of HIV to those without a diagnosis of HIV from 2002 to 2017. Results: HIV+ patients were found to have a much lower age at admission, with a difference of over 10 years when compared to HIV− patients. HIV+ patients were also less likely to discharge to home when compared to HIV− patients (P < 0.0001). Gains in functional independence measure (FIM) scores per day were found to be greater among those who were HIV− compared to those who were HIV+ (P = 0.086). Factors associated with a lower FIM efficiency included older age at admission, male gender, and having a hemorrhagic stroke (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: This study found that, among those hospitalized for the treatment of a stroke, the functional gain per day was inferior among those with HIV than among those without HIV at admission

A Web-Based Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum: Facilitating Education About Lifestyle Medicine, Behavioral Change, and Health Care Outcomes

Background: Lifestyle medicine is the science and application of healthy lifestyles as interventions for the prevention and treatment of disease, and has gained significant momentum as a specialty in recent years. College is a critical time for maintenance and acquisition of healthy habits. Longer-term, more intensive web-based and in-person lifestyle medicine interventions can have a positive effect. Students who are exposed to components of lifestyle medicine in their education have improvements in their health behaviors. A semester-long undergraduate course focused on lifestyle medicine can be a useful intervention to help adopt and sustain healthy habits. Objective: To describe a novel, evidence based curriculum for a course teaching the concepts of Lifestyle Medicine based on a web-based course offered at the Harvard Extension School. Methods: The course was delivered in a web-based format. The Lifestyle Medicine course used evidence based principles to guide students toward a “coach approach” to behavior change, increasing their self-efficacy regarding various lifestyle-related preventive behaviors. Students are made to understand the cultural trends and national guidelines that have shaped lifestyle medicine recommendations relating to behaviors. They are encouraged to engage in behavior change. Course topics include physical activity, nutrition, addiction, sleep, stress, and lifestyle coaching and counseling. The course addressed all of the American College of Preventive Medicine/American College of Lifestyle Medicine competencies save for the competency of office systems and technologies to support lifestyle medicine counseling. Results: The course was well-received, earning a ranking of 4.9/5 at the school. Conclusions: A novel, semester-long course on Lifestyle Medicine at the Harvard Extension School is described. Student evaluations suggest the course was well-received. Further research is needed to evaluate whether such a course empowers students to adopt behavior changes

The effect of body mass index on the functional outcome of patients with hip replacement

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and the functional progress among patients with a recent hip replacement. Data suggest that a number of medical societies and organizations are restricting patient access to joint replacement surgeries based on the patient's BMI. This restriction seems to be related to the increased risk of complications, primarily wound infections, at the time of surgery. Few studies have been conducted on the relationship between BMI and outcomes during rehabilitation after hip replacement surgery. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: All patients admitted to a rehabilitation hospital, with a recent diagnosis of hip replacement and available hospital admission height and weight data during the years 2014-2017. Main Outcome Measure: Functional independence measure (FIM) gain per day of patients by BMI category. Results: The chart review identified 479 patients had undergone hip replacement surgery. Over half of the patients were overweight or obese. FIM efficiency (FIM change/day) was the highest in the obese class II category (3.65), followed by obese class III (3.60). The differences in FIM efficiency between the normal and obese I groups reached statistical significance in favor of obese I (P = 0.024). Conclusion: This study did not demonstrate that obesity significantly impairs functional outcomes during the rehabilitation process after hip replacement surgery