Tailored advice on exercise - Does it make a difference?

Objectives: A controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of verbal advic e from a family physician (FP) combined with either "standard" or "tailored " written information on physical activity in increasing the levels of phys ical activity in sedentary patients. Design: Sedentary patients (n = 763) were recruited through ten family prac tices and allocated to a control group or one of two intervention groups, B rief advice on physical activity was given by the FP during the consultatio n and either a standard or tailored pamphlet was mailed to the home address of patients assigned to the intervention groups within two days of their v isit to the FP. Results: The response to follow-up, via a postal survey at one, six, and tw elve months after the index consultation was 70%, 60%, and 57%, respectivel y. Treating all nonresponders as sedentary, the results revealed that altho ugh more tailored subjects reported some physical activity at each follow-u p compared with the standard group, these differences were not significant, Furthermore, there was no significant difference in movement across the st ages of readiness to exercise at follow-up between subjects in the tailored group who received material targeting their current stage (precontemplatio n or contemplation) and the standard group who received generic material th at addressed both stages. Conclusion: These findings do not concur with the results from previous res earch in the areas of nutrition and smoking cessation where additional bene fits were seen with a tailored intervention. Future research on the applica tion of the principles of "tailoring" to the promotion of physical activity should focus on identifying which, if any, physical, social, psychological or environmental variables should be addressed to produce improved outcome s over and above the effects of well designed generic materials. (C) 1999 A merican Journal of Preventive Medicine.