Primary Care Provider’s Consideration of Environmental Factors When Counseling Patients about Physical Activity
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: There is a paucity of research on the content of Primary Care Provider (PCP)-patient discussions regarding physical activity especially content on environmental factors related to physical activity.Variable coverage of environmental factors by PCPs could manifest as inconsistent patient behavioral responses which is what research has demonstrated.Knowing the extent to which PCPs discuss environmental factors would provide additional insight into designing more effective physical activity interventions for primary care settings.Therefore, we examined PCP's coverage of environmental factors when counseling patients about physical activity.Methods: For this cross-sectional study, 22.1% (n=104) of the PCPs practicing in the urban core of a large, metropolitan area self-reported whether they addressed any of the following six environmental factors when counseling patients about physical activity: places for physical activity, presence/absence of sidewalks/ trails/paths, traffic, home exercise equipment, safety from crime and aesthetics.In addition, they indicated the types of resources they used and needed to help convey information to patients about environmental factors.Multiple regression analysis was used to identify characteristics related to the number of environmental factors addressed.Results: Twenty-five percent of the PCPs did not address any of the six environmental factors when counseling patients about physical activity.The regression analysis showed that being male, needing more resources (e.g., in-house staff) and a lighter patient load were significantly associated with addressing fewer environmental factors.Conclusion: Providing PCPs with adequate resources could help them convey information to patients about environmental factors and potentially improve behavioral-and health-related patient outcomes.
DOI: 10.36876/smpmph.1009
Language: English
Topic: Physical Activity and Health
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2985650765