Training health professionals to provide physical activity counselling

Jeff S Coombes; Andrew Williams; Jan Radford

doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2020.12.005

Training health professionals to provide physical activity counselling

Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2021 Jan-Feb:64:72-76. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2020.12.005. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Authors

Jeff S Coombes¹, Andrew Williams², Jan Radford³

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Exercise on Exercise, Physical Activity and Health, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: jcoombes@uq.edu.au.
² School of Health Sciences, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.
³ Launceston Clinical School, School of Medicine, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.

PMID: 33383059
DOI: 10.1016/j.pcad.2020.12.005

Abstract

There is strong evidence that physical activity (PA) counselling from a health professional (HPs) leads to increased PA of their patients. Despite this, there remains a large evidence-practice gap between HP knowledge of the contribution of physical inactivity to chronic disease prevention and management, and routine effective assessment and prescription of PA. This article will present evidence on the effectiveness of HP- PA counselling and suggested behaviour change frameworks that can be used by HP. Four case studies are provided as examples of programs integrated into current HP student and post-graduate training programs.

Keywords: Behaviour change; Exercise; Experiential learning; Interdisciplinary education.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Attitude of Health Personnel*
Counseling / methods*
Exercise / physiology*
Health Behavior*
Health Personnel / education*
Humans