Effect of Health Care Professionals' Exercise More Advice on Their Patients' Physical

Purpose:

 To evaluate the effects of HCPs’ advice on patients’ physical activity  in U.S. adults.

Methods:

 The US 2004-2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data including 1-year follow-up data from 20,002 adult patients were used. Logistic regression models were fit for the outcome variables.

Results:

  Compared to patients who did not receive the advice, patients received exercise more advice at year 1 were less likely to have moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in year 2. This association was significant in all patients (OR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79, 0.96) , normal-weight patients (OR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.67, 0.96) and in overweight or obese patients (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.02).

Conclusion:

 Patients who reported receiving exercise more advice from HCPs did not have increased habitual physical activity after one year. HCPs may need to provide more systematic and effective strategies to enhance patients’ healthy exercise. More future research based on longitudinal data is needed to examine whether these strategies are truly effective.