Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Lifestyle Treatment for Inpatients With Mental Illness

People with mental illness (MI) have a reduced life expectancy compared to the general population, mostly attributable to somatic diseases caused by poor physical health. Modifiable "lifestyle factors" have been increasingly associated with the onset of somatic diseases in people with MI and refer to health behaviours such as physical activity (PA), diet, sleep and smoking behaviour. Despite the evidence demonstrating the efficacy of interventions aimed at improving lifestyle factors, there have not been many structural changes in routine clinical care for people with MI. Using a multidisciplinary, multicomponent approach, Deenik and colleagues (2019) were the first to find long-term positive effects in both mental and somatic health in a real-world inpatient setting for people with severe mental illness (SMI). They found improvements in metabolic health, psychosocial functioning and quality of life, and a reduction in the use of psychotropic medication. The authors urged to confirm and complement findings in scaled-up studies, and made several suggestions for improvement of the treatment and pragmatic research of implementation. In line with these previous recommendations the MULTI is being scaled-up into the MULTI+. This study investigates the implementation and effectiveness of a multidisciplinary lifestyle treatment for inpatients with mental illness (MULTI+).