Strategic considerations for diet therapy-centered lifestyle medicine included into secondary disciplines of nursing under the Healthy China initiative

FAN Na; ZHAO Yiwen; GUO Dandan; ZHANG Jun; WEI Zhuan; HAN Shifan

doi:10.12104/j.issn.1674-4748.2026.05.001

Abstract：Against the backdrop of the"Healthy China"initiative,nursing science is undergoing a paradigm shift from a"disease-centered model"to one"oriented toward health maintenance and health promotion."From the perspectives of disciplinary development and knowledge system construction,this paper systematically analyzes the necessity and feasibility of developing diet therapy-centered lifestyle medicine as an emerging secondary discipline within nursing.The current structure of nursing secondary disciplines is primarily organized along the dimensions of"population-problem-care setting,"with limited incorporation of knowledge integration based on health intervention mechanisms,thereby constraining the systematic inclusion of methodologically driven frontier fields such as lifestyle interventions.This study demonstrates that lifestyle medicine,with its focus on behavior change and health promotion,is highly aligned with the core professional attributes of nursing,including continuity of care,contextualized practice,and patient education.However,the disciplinary subjectivity of nursing and the systematic construction of knowledge in this field remain insufficiently developed.Notably,the nursing discipline has already achieved a critical transition in this domain,shifting from exploratory practice to theoretical construction.Existing studies indicate that,grounded in"Family Nurse Diet Therapy"and supported by relevant clinical research evidence,diet therapy-centered lifestyle nursing interventions have established a relatively coherent knowledge system encompassing theoretical frameworks,practice pathways,and outcome evaluation,could independently assess the effectiveness of nursing practice,reflect the uniqueness of nursing practice and the professional value of nurses.These developments provide a solid academic foundation for its evolution into an independent secondary discipline of nursing.Elevating this direction to the level of a secondary discipline characterized by health intervention mechanisms would not only refine the existing logic of disciplinary classification but also offer essential academic support for nursing's transformation from a traditional role in disease care to a leading role in health intervention and guidance within the"Healthy China"initiative.Promoting the disciplinary institutionalization and systematic development of this field represents a critical pathway for expanding the professional boundaries of nursing in health promotion and for constructing a nursing disciplinary system with distinct Chinese characteristics.