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The Effectiveness of a General-Practice-Based Physical Activity Intervention on Patient Physical Activity Status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Peita Graham-Clarke  and
Brian Oldenburg
Peita Graham-Clarke*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Brian Oldenburg
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology
*
PHRDC Research Scholar, Department of Public Health, Building A27, University of Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
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Abstract

Physical inactivity is a risk factor for a number of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of physical inactivity have focused primarily on either adoption of physical activity or noncompliance and relapse, and no interventions have been reported which cover adoption, compliance, maintenance, and relapse, particularly within the clinical setting. The Fresh Start program, a multiple risk factor intervention program for the reduction of cardiovascular disease risk factors in general practice patients, was developed to cover all aspects of the adoption and maintenance of habitual physical activity, using Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical model. The evaluation of the program on cardiovascular disease risk factors and behaviours provided the opportunity to evaluate the impact of a staged program on patient physical activity behaviour. The program was evaluated in a randomised controlled trial in Sydney's Western, South-western, and Wentworth regions with 80 volunteer general practitioners and 758 volunteer patients between January 1991 and January 1993. Self-reported physical activity data were used as the basis for estimating energy expenditure due to leisure-time physical activity. The results failed to show any differences between groups over time, as a function of patients' baseline stages of change, and as a function of baseline activity levels. There were some indications, however, that the least active would respond to doctor-based advice to increase their physical activity, and that doctor advice would lead to a progression in intention to change in approximately 20% of patients. Limitations of the study, the program, and physical activity intervention in the clinical setting are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 132 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1994

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References

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