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- Page navigation anchor for RE: Is general practice engaged with physical activity promotion?RE: Is general practice engaged with physical activity promotion?
I welcome the authors’ efforts to highlight the importance of physical activity in the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention and treatment of disease. No-one would argue against the benefits of being physically active and I think you would struggle to find a GP who didn’t regularly promote these benefits to their patients. I do however think it is disingenuous to equate a lack of knowledge of the CMO’s guidance on physical activity with a failure of GPs to engage with physical activity promotion.
I question the efficacy of informing patients of the CMO’s guidance in engendering meaningful change in physical activity levels. Indeed, for many of our patients, to suggest they engage in 150 minutes of activity a week and undertake muscle strengthening activities on two days a week would seem, to the patient, beyond the realms of possibility. Perhaps a more intelligent and patient centred approach to encouraging patients to be more physically active is would be more effective than rote regurgitation of the guidance. Encouraging patients to move more does not require knowledge of the latest in a long line of guidance on physical activity.
Finally, I don’t think it is helpful to suggest the use of QOF incentives to solve this problem. The GPPAQ questionnaire did make a brief appearance in the QOF targets for specific patient groups but I fear that, as is the way with targets, it became a resented tick box exercise and did...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: Is general practice engaged with physical activity promotion?RE: Is general practice engaged with physical activity promotion?
A further dimension to general practitioners’ (GP) limited knowledge of the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) advice on physical activity described by Savill et al. lies in the health of primary care physicians themselves. As a sedentary profession with long office hours, this finding indicates that GPs may be at increased risk of the very same physical and psychological consequences they seek to prevent in their patients. Such a conclusion could have wider implications for the public because patients’ perceptions of GP health are reported to influence their facilitation of advice given.1 This effect is not simply based on physical appearance of health and weight; one of the key determinants is the disclosure of the GP’s own health behaviours.1 While growing attention has been paid to burnout in general practitioners,2-3 the impact of working conditions on the physical health of general practitioners needs to be considered further. Opportunities should be created within annual appraisals to promote greater discussion of this, in particular strategies to address physical inactivity.
References
1. Fraser SE, Leveritt MD, Ball LE. Patients' perceptions of their general practitioner's health and weight influences their perceptions of nutrition and exercise advice received. J Prim Health Care 2013; 5(4):301-7
2. Linzer M, Sara Poplau S, Grossman E...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.