Background: Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based approach that promotes healthy behaviors to
prevent and manage chronic diseases. Existing lifestyle medicine programming is not always easily
accessible to meet the growing demand among patients who may benefit from them. Our study aims to
evaluate the impact of a community-based lifestyle medicine learning park pilot series on South Los
Angeles County residents’ health knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes.

Methods: Participants were recruited at parks and virtually in partnership with Los Angeles
Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT) between April-May 2024. The intervention included four, 1.5-hour
weekly workshops on nutrition, fitness, sleep, stress, and nature. Survey questions covered
demographics, health goals/behaviors/attitudes, and program feedback. Institutional Review Board
approval was obtained. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were performed. Qualitative data
were coded for themes.

Results: Of 52 enrolled participants, 19 (36.5%, mean age 60 years) attended 3 or more of the 4 total
sessions, signifying good retention, of which the majority were female (68.4%), ethnically
Hispanic/Latino/Spanish (79.0%), and from the surrounding zip code (84.2%). Based on
three-months-post-intervention surveys, the majority of participants reported making a health change
after program participation (92.9%, n=13/14), the most common being nutrition-related (58.3%,
n=7/12). Significant health behavior changes included improved ability to cope with stress (p=0.003). For
future iterations, participants expressed interest in learning about disease-specific topics, including
diabetes, hypertension, and mental health.

Conclusions: The Healthy Neighbors/Vecinos Saludables pilot program demonstrated promising health
behavior change outcomes related to nutrition and stress despite a relatively short time-frame. Further
research is needed to determine sustained behavior change and whether these changes translate into
improved health outcomes.

Public Health Implications: Health service systems could be redesigned to include community
engagement to provide effective health programing for communities that traditionally lack access.

Data Source: Survey data from UCLA