BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOR OF GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS REGARDING PROMOTION OF PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY

To assess current practice, perceived desirable practice and barriers related to the promotion of physical activity in general practice, a q uestionnaire was developed and distributed to all 1228 general practit ioners in Perth. From these, 789 valid returns were received (71 per c ent response). The mean age of the respondents was 45 years, 69 per ce nt were male, 52 per cent had postgraduate qualifications and 73 per c ent were in full-time practice. General practitioners most frequently asked patients about their current level of physical activity and disc ussed physical activity programs when seeing patients with symptoms of conditions that could benefit from exercise, rather than asking all p atients, new patients or patients previously seen. Walking specificall y for fitness was the activity most likely to be recommended. General practitioners felt more able to offer general advice than specific adv ice on physical activity. Lack of time was reported most frequently as a barrier to the promotion of physical activity (47 per cent), follow ed by insufficient educational materials (29 per cent), and preference of patients for drug treatment (27 per cent). There were significant differences between self-reports of current practice and perceived des irable practice in the promotion of physical activity by general pract itioners. Future strategies should aim to increase the frequency of ad vice to patients with specific health conditions.