• Ross Arena, Nicolaas P Pronk, Deepika Laddu, Laurie P Whitsel, James F Sallis, Carl J Lavie, and HL-PIVOT Network.
• Department of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Science, University of Illinois Chicago; Healthy Living for Pandemic Event Protection (HL - PIVOT) Network, Chicago, Ill. Electronic address: raarena@uic.edu.
• Am. J. Med. 2022 Nov 1; 135 (11): 128812951288-1295.

AbstractTragically, the United States (US) surpassed one million documented deaths due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A convincing association between unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19 infection has already been demonstrated and communicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in public health messaging. The US is experiencing not a pandemic, but a syndemic, specifically an unhealthy lifestyle behaviors-chronic diseases-COVID-19 syndemic. This syndemic has almost certainly significantly contributed to the more than one million deaths the United States has experienced during the pandemic. Decades of a high prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors laid the foundation for our current unfortunate situation by increasing vulnerability to a novel virus, especially among subgroups who have been historically marginalized. As such, a major pathway to defeating this syndemic is through the promotion of healthy living behaviors for all. Now is the time for action appropriate to meet the demands of a syndemic and a new path forward to a healthier and more equitable future.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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