Medical Students’ Perceptions of Lifestyle Medicine in the UAE: A Qualitative Study
1
Family Medicine Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
2
Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
3
Medical Education Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A2566
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Lifestyle medicine is central to noncommunicable disease prevention and physician wellbeing, yet little is known about how early medical students in Middle Eastern settings apply these principles in their own lives and professional identity formation. This study explored how first-year medical students in the United Arab Emirates engaged with the six pillars of lifestyle medicine through structured reflective writing.
METHODS:
We conducted a qualitative document analysis of 150 reflective essays written by first-year medical students in a Professionalism and Communication course. Students responded to prompts linking the six lifestyle medicine pillars to self-care and academic success. Data were anonymised and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. AI tools supported coding; outputs were treated as secondary, critically appraised inputs and refined through human judgement to preserve rigour.
RESULTS:
Across all six pillars, students described a process of “situated self-regulation in transition”: noticing maladaptive habits, experimenting with small changes, and retaining strategies that aligned with “the kind of doctor I want to become.” Narratives highlighted more intentional nutrition, movement, and restorative sleep; evolving stress-management strategies emphasising self-compassion; critical reappraisal of high-dose caffeine, sugar and other “risky” performance tools; and deliberate use of social connection, boundaries, and digital detox practices as buffers against distress and enablers of behaviour change.
CONCLUSIONS:
Embedding lifestyle medicine within a low-stakes, reflective first-year curriculum enabled students to use an evidence-informed wellbeing framework as a lens for self-care, self-regulation, and early professional identity work. The six pillars functioned less as discrete behaviours and more as interconnected routines assembled to manage stress and study demands in this sociocultural context. Longitudinal, multi-institutional, mixed-methods studies are needed to examine impacts on later mental health, burnout, and clinical practice.
Lifestyle medicine is central to noncommunicable disease prevention and physician wellbeing, yet little is known about how early medical students in Middle Eastern settings apply these principles in their own lives and professional identity formation. This study explored how first-year medical students in the United Arab Emirates engaged with the six pillars of lifestyle medicine through structured reflective writing.
METHODS:
We conducted a qualitative document analysis of 150 reflective essays written by first-year medical students in a Professionalism and Communication course. Students responded to prompts linking the six lifestyle medicine pillars to self-care and academic success. Data were anonymised and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. AI tools supported coding; outputs were treated as secondary, critically appraised inputs and refined through human judgement to preserve rigour.
RESULTS:
Across all six pillars, students described a process of “situated self-regulation in transition”: noticing maladaptive habits, experimenting with small changes, and retaining strategies that aligned with “the kind of doctor I want to become.” Narratives highlighted more intentional nutrition, movement, and restorative sleep; evolving stress-management strategies emphasising self-compassion; critical reappraisal of high-dose caffeine, sugar and other “risky” performance tools; and deliberate use of social connection, boundaries, and digital detox practices as buffers against distress and enablers of behaviour change.
CONCLUSIONS:
Embedding lifestyle medicine within a low-stakes, reflective first-year curriculum enabled students to use an evidence-informed wellbeing framework as a lens for self-care, self-regulation, and early professional identity work. The six pillars functioned less as discrete behaviours and more as interconnected routines assembled to manage stress and study demands in this sociocultural context. Longitudinal, multi-institutional, mixed-methods studies are needed to examine impacts on later mental health, burnout, and clinical practice.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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