Why Lifestyle Medicine Matters for Viet Nam Now: Chronic Disease, Prevention and the Future of Care

Viet Nam is facing a health challenge that looks very different from the one it faced several decades ago. Noncommunicable diseases are now the country's leading cause of death. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases together account for about 80% of deaths, many of them premature. [1]

This is one reason Lifestyle Medicine deserves serious attention in Viet Nam now. The case is not that Viet Nam needs another imported medical label, or that lifestyle interventions can replace medicines, procedures, public health measures, or broader health-system reform. A more useful question is whether healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations are sufficiently equipped to address lifestyle-related factors systematically, support sustainable behavior change, and integrate prevention more effectively into long-term care.

Lifestyle Medicine offers one evidence-based framework for doing that.

The burden is not only disease, but the risks that accumulate before disease appears

The national STEPS survey provides an important picture of the challenge. Among adults aged 18 to 69 surveyed in 2021, 59% consumed fewer than five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, 22.2% did not meet World Health Organization recommendations for physical activity, and average salt intake was estimated at 8.1 grams per day. Raised blood pressure, defined in the survey as systolic blood pressure of at least 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure of at least 90 mmHg, or current treatment for hypertension, affected 26.2% of participants. About 19.5% were overweight, including 2.1% with obesity. Raised blood glucose or current treatment for diabetes affected 7.1%, while 44.1% had raised total cholesterol or were receiving cholesterol-lowering treatment. [2]

Some trends are particularly concerning. Between the 2015 and 2021 survey rounds, raised blood pressure increased from 18.9% to 26.2%, overweight increased from 15.6% to 19.5%, and raised blood glucose increased from 4.1% to 7.1%. At the same time, not every indicator moved in the wrong direction. The proportion not meeting physical activity recommendations fell from 28.1% to 22.2%, while alcohol use in the previous 30 days fell from 43.8% to 36.9%. Viet Nam's risk-factor profile is therefore changing, but not uniformly. [2]

These figures should not be read as evidence that chronic disease is simply the result of poor personal choices. Disease develops through complex interactions among biology, age, behavior, social conditions, environmental exposures, access to healthcare, and many other influences. The data do show, however, that several modifiable factors relevant to Lifestyle Medicine remain highly prevalent.

The challenge is therefore not merely telling people that smoking, excess salt, inactivity, or unhealthy diets are harmful. Most people already encounter versions of those messages. The harder task is helping individuals translate knowledge into sustainable change while ensuring that healthcare systems can detect risk early, support patients over time, and provide appropriate treatment when needed.

Prevention is moving closer to the center of Viet Nam's health agenda

The timing is also important because Viet Nam's health policy is placing much greater emphasis on prevention.

Politburo Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW, dated 9 September 2025, calls for a fundamental shift from a system focused mainly on examination and treatment toward proactive disease prevention and comprehensive health promotion. It emphasizes healthier lifestyles, nutrition, physical activity, mental health, reduction of tobacco and alcohol use, healthier living environments, stronger preventive medicine, and stronger primary healthcare. [3]

The resolution also sets ambitious directions for the coming years. From 2026, it calls for periodic health examinations or screening at least once a year, electronic health records across the life course, stronger commune-level health services, and a gradual increase in public and health-insurance financing for selected preventive services, early diagnosis, and chronic disease management. These are policy commitments that require phased implementation, financing, workforce development, and operational guidance. They should not be read as evidence that every element is already universally available. [3]

The policy shift has continued to be emphasized during 2026. At the first National Health Day in April, national health leaders again highlighted prevention as a long-term priority, together with healthy nutrition, physical activity, reduced tobacco and alcohol use, mental wellbeing, stronger grassroots healthcare, and digital health. [4]

The National Assembly also adopted the Law on Disease Prevention on 10 December 2025. The World Health Organization described this as an important legal foundation for strengthening prevention and coordinated action on noncommunicable diseases. [1]

None of this means that Viet Nam has formally adopted Lifestyle Medicine as a medical specialty, certification pathway, or national model of care. It has not. But the direction of reform increasingly overlaps with capabilities that are central to evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine: prevention, health behavior support, person-centered care, chronic disease management, interprofessional teamwork, and systematic attention to modifiable risk factors.

That creates an important opportunity, provided Lifestyle Medicine is developed responsibly.

Lifestyle Medicine is more than telling patients to live healthier lives

The six familiar pillars of Lifestyle Medicine include nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection. But a clinical discipline cannot be defined simply by listing healthy behaviors.

Contemporary Lifestyle Medicine also includes clinical assessment, evidence appraisal, therapeutic alliance, motivational interviewing, health coaching approaches, patient-centered goal setting, relapse prevention, interprofessional care, outcome measurement, and quality improvement. The latest published Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies contain 89 competencies and explicitly include social determinants of health, planetary health, and the application of evidence in clinical practice. [7]

The distinction becomes practical very quickly. Telling a patient with hypertension to “eat less salt and exercise more” may be reasonable advice. A more structured Lifestyle Medicine approach would also explore what the person is currently eating, where meals are prepared, how much salt or salty sauce is actually being consumed, what physical activity is realistic given work and family responsibilities, whether sleep and stress are relevant, what medications are being used, what matters most to the patient, and how progress will be followed.

That approach does not compete with appropriate antihypertensive treatment. It complements medical care by making lifestyle-related factors part of the clinical process rather than an instruction delivered at the end of the consultation.

The same principle applies to other chronic conditions, although the evidence and appropriate interventions differ by disease and by patient. Lifestyle Medicine should never be presented as a universal cure. Medication or other treatment should not be reduced or stopped without appropriate clinical assessment and monitoring.

Primary and long-term care are especially important

Chronic diseases differ from many acute conditions because people may live with them for years or decades. Prevention, early detection, ongoing treatment, self-management, and continuity of care therefore become central.

Recent developments in Viet Nam show that this is no longer only a policy aspiration. In September 2026, the World Health Organization reported that a large-scale Ministry of Health initiative for hypertension and diabetes was screening about 10 million people each year and had brought more than 2 million people into treatment. Blood-pressure control among program participants increased from 53% in 2022 to 72% in 2025. [5]

From 2018 to 2025, the model expanded to around 5,000 commune and ward health stations across 52 of the former 63 provinces and centrally governed cities. About 420,000 patients are now managed at grassroots facilities each month. The model uses standardized treatment protocols, two-way referral, ongoing training, technical support, and online reporting to help maintain continuity of care. [5]

These developments are highly relevant to Lifestyle Medicine, but they should not be misinterpreted. The lesson is not that every commune health station should establish a “Lifestyle Medicine clinic.” In many settings, a more realistic starting point is to strengthen competencies that are already useful for high-quality chronic disease care: structured lifestyle assessment, effective behavior-change conversations, follow-up, self-management support, and clear referral pathways.

The value may initially lie less in creating a new service line and more in improving how existing care is delivered.

Viet Nam should not simply copy another country's model

Lifestyle Medicine has developed rapidly in a number of countries, and international experience can be useful. But Viet Nam has its own health system, culture, food environment, professional regulations, and patterns of daily life.

Nutrition is a good example. Vietnamese cuisine is widely recognized for fresh ingredients and a strong presence of fruit and vegetables. At the same time, the food environment is changing. In September 2026, the World Health Organization highlighted rising consumption in Viet Nam of ultra-processed foods, fast foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages, many of which are high in salt, sugar, or unhealthy fats. [6]

Salt remains another important issue. The STEPS survey estimated average intake at 8.1 grams per person per day in 2021, still well above the World Health Organization recommendation of less than 5 grams per day. [2]

A useful nutrition intervention in Viet Nam therefore has to understand how people actually shop, cook, season food, eat with family, eat outside the home, and respond to an increasingly commercial food environment. Simply translating a dietary handout developed elsewhere is unlikely to be enough.

Physical activity presents similar challenges. Recommending a certain number of minutes of exercise is straightforward. Understanding long working hours, commuting, heat, traffic, neighborhood design, caregiving responsibilities, disability, and access to safe spaces for activity is harder.

Sleep, stress, social connection, tobacco use, and alcohol use require the same contextual thinking.

This is why international evidence needs adaptation rather than simple translation. Evidence tells us what has been observed in particular populations and settings. Clinical judgment and implementation work are needed to determine how that evidence can be applied responsibly in Viet Nam.

Healthy choices do not happen in a vacuum

This principle is increasingly recognized within Lifestyle Medicine itself. The 2025 update to the Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies added a competency requiring practitioners to apply Lifestyle Medicine interventions in the context of social determinants of health to improve health outcomes and health equity. It also strengthened the competency addressing the relationship between Lifestyle Medicine, planetary health, and sustainable living. [7]

That has obvious relevance in Viet Nam.

Income influences what food people can afford. Education and health literacy affect how health information is understood. Work conditions affect physical activity, stress, and sleep. Housing and neighborhood environments shape exposure to heat, air pollution, noise, and opportunities to exercise. Rural and urban populations may face very different barriers to healthcare. Family relationships can support behavior change, but they can also complicate it.

Environmental conditions matter as well. Air pollution, extreme heat, flooding, and other climate-related pressures can affect health directly while also influencing people's ability to maintain healthy behaviors.

A Lifestyle Medicine approach focused only on individual motivation risks missing much of this context. It can also unintentionally shift responsibility onto people for circumstances they do not fully control.

Lifestyle Medicine should therefore complement, not replace, population-level action. Tobacco control, alcohol policy, healthier food environments, urban planning, air-quality improvement, social protection, education, and other policies remain essential. The World Health Organization has similarly emphasized that reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases requires coordinated action across sectors including health, education, finance, environment, agriculture, transport, and others. [1]

Clinical care and public health are not competing approaches. Viet Nam needs both.

The workforce question may be as important as the treatment question

If prevention is to become more central to healthcare, healthcare professionals need more than information about risk factors.

A clinician may know that physical activity reduces cardiovascular risk but still feel poorly prepared to assess activity, prescribe it safely, or help a patient overcome barriers. A doctor may understand the importance of nutrition but have limited consultation time or limited access to dietetic support, depending on the setting. A nurse may recognize that stress or poor sleep is affecting a patient but be uncertain about what can be addressed within their professional scope and when referral is appropriate.

Competency-based education offers one practical way to address that gap.

The current Lifestyle Medicine competency framework covers not only nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and the other pillars, but also behavior change, therapeutic relationships, teamwork, referral, clinical systems, quality improvement, and evidence appraisal. [7]

For Viet Nam, these competencies can provide a useful international reference, but they should not simply be imported wholesale. Education needs to reflect Vietnamese law, professional scopes of practice, existing clinical guidelines, available resources, and the realities of local healthcare settings.

Competency in Lifestyle Medicine also does not mean that every healthcare professional should perform every task. Physicians, nurses, dietitians, physiotherapists, psychologists, pharmacists, exercise professionals, and others bring different expertise. A stronger model is likely to be interprofessional, with clear responsibilities and referral pathways.

Lifestyle Medicine-specific education, research and implementation are still developing

Lifestyle Medicine-specific education, research, and implementation in Viet Nam are still developing. That creates a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Rather than assuming that models developed elsewhere will work here, Viet Nam can ask practical questions from the beginning. Which competencies are most useful for different groups of healthcare professionals? What educational formats are feasible? Can structured lifestyle assessment be incorporated into outpatient workflows without creating excessive burden? Which behavior-change approaches work well in Vietnamese clinical settings? How should outcomes be measured? Which interventions are affordable and scalable?

These are implementation questions, not simply educational ones.

They also create opportunities for locally generated evidence. Small pilot programs, quality-improvement projects, pragmatic evaluations, and implementation research can answer questions that international clinical trials cannot resolve on their own.

Viet Nam does not only need to consume Lifestyle Medicine evidence from other countries. Over time, it should contribute evidence of its own.

What Lifestyle Medicine should not become in Viet Nam

As interest grows, maintaining clear boundaries will be important.

Lifestyle Medicine should not become a broad label under which every wellness product, supplement, laboratory test, wearable device, or commercial program is marketed as medical care. The word “lifestyle” does not make an intervention evidence-based.

It should not create a false opposition between lifestyle and medication. Many patients need both.

It should not promise disease reversal when the evidence does not support that claim for a particular condition or patient.

It should not encourage healthcare professionals to practise outside their licensed scope.

And it should not imply that people who develop chronic disease have failed to live correctly.

The credibility of Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam will depend not on how broadly the term is used, but on how carefully it is used.

So why does Lifestyle Medicine matter for Viet Nam now?

Several developments are converging.

Noncommunicable diseases now dominate mortality. Major behavioral and metabolic risk factors remain common. Many patients require long-term chronic disease care. Viet Nam is strengthening prevention, grassroots healthcare, early detection, and chronic disease management, while new policy and legal frameworks are giving prevention a more central place in the health system.

At the same time, the international understanding of Lifestyle Medicine is becoming more sophisticated. Effective intervention requires more than generic advice. It requires evidence, clinical skills, behavior-change capability, person-centered care, appropriate follow-up, teamwork, and an understanding of the social and environmental conditions in which people live. [7]

Lifestyle Medicine is not the answer to every one of these challenges, and it should not be presented that way. But it offers a useful clinical and educational framework for an area of healthcare that Viet Nam increasingly needs to strengthen: helping people prevent and manage chronic disease through sustainable changes in daily life while integrating those changes with appropriate medical care.

The opportunity is therefore not simply to create more lifestyle advice.

It is to move from advice to assessment, evidence, behavior change, follow-up, teamwork, and implementation.

If Viet Nam can do that well, Lifestyle Medicine may contribute to something larger than the development of a new professional field. It may support the broader transition toward a health system that protects health earlier, manages chronic disease closer to where people live, and helps people remain healthier for longer.

That is why Lifestyle Medicine matters for Viet Nam now.

Professional education notice

This resource is intended for professional education and knowledge exchange. It does not constitute individualized medical advice, confer professional certification or scope of practice, or replace applicable clinical guidelines, professional judgment, licensing requirements, or Vietnamese laws and regulations.

References

1. World Health Organization. Viet Nam unites to tackle top causes of disease and death. 15 December 2025.

2. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. National survey on the risk factors of noncommunicable diseases in Viet Nam, 2021. Manila: World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific; 2025.

3. Bộ Chính trị. Nghị quyết số 72-NQ/TW ngày 9 tháng 9 năm 2025 về một số giải pháp đột phá, tăng cường bảo vệ, chăm sóc và nâng cao sức khỏe nhân dân.

4. Cổng Thông tin điện tử Chính phủ. Ngày Sức khỏe toàn dân 2026: Lấy phòng bệnh làm trọng tâm. 5 April 2026.

5. World Health Organization. Tăng cường y tế cơ sở, mang dịch vụ phòng chống bệnh không lây nhiễm đến với 10 triệu người dân tại Việt Nam. 8 September 2026.

6. World Health Organization. Speech of Dr Angela Pratt at KOL Workshop on Nutrition and NCDs. 15 September 2026.

7. Rea BL, Cheema S, Lanza S, et al. Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2026;20(3):443-451. doi:10.1177/15598276251379821.

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