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Introduction Less than 20% of US adults meet physical activity (PA) recommendations, yet few physicians provide consistent PA counseling. There is limited research on the state of education of PA counseling in medical school curricula. The purpose of this study was to analyze medical students’ perspectives on the current state and perceived quality of PA education in medical school. Methods An online survey was administered to the students of nine United States medical schools in January 2021. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze results. Results Of 5500 invited students, 1182 (21.5%) responded. Only 8% of students received any formal training on PA counseling for patient or self-use throughout their medical education. The majority (64% and 85%, respectively) of respondents felt that both learning more about the benefits of PA and gaining more practical skills in counseling on PA should be requirements to graduate. Students across all medical school years agreed that formal training on patient counseling for PA should be taught more in-depth. Conclusions Medical students believe that PA and exercise physiology should comprise more of medical education curricula. Such training may equip students with the tools they believe they need to adequately treat patients effectively throughout their careers.

Background Studies demonstrate that metabolic syndrome (MetS) negatively impacts surgical outcomes. This study sought to identify how metabolic syndrome affects outcomes after open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of traumatic pilon fractures. Methods Patients who underwent ORIF for pilon fractures from 2012 to 2019 were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Patients with MetS were compared to non-MetS patients for rates of adverse events, prolonged stay, readmission, discharge location, and operative time in the 30-day postoperative period. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Paired student t-tests were used to assess continuous variables. Pearson’s Chi-square and odds ratios were used for categorical variables. Results A total of 1,915 patients met this study’s inclusion criteria, and 127 MetS patients were identified in the cohort. The MetS cohort was older (62.7 vs 49.5 years old, p-value <0.01), with a greater proportion of female patients (59.1% vs 50.2%, p=0.054). MetS patients experienced significantly higher rates of infectious complications (7.9% vs 3.9% OR 2.75 (CI 1.36-5.53), p=0.008), major adverse events (11% vs 4.3%, OR 2.79 (CI 1.53-5.09) p=0.002), and readmissions. MetS patients also had longer lengths of stay (7 days vs 3.8 days, p-value<0.001), and were more likely to be discharged to a non-home location (51.2% vs 19.5%, p-value<0.01, OR 4.32 (CI=3.0-6.24) p<0.001). Conclusion Patients with MetS have an increased risk of 30-day major complications, infection, readmissions, discharge to a non-home location, and prolonged operative time, and therefore warrant additional consideration for perioperative monitoring.