Attitudes to cardiovascular health promotion among GPs and practice nurses

Background. Cardiovascular health promotion is an important element of nati onal health strategy, but doubts have been raised about current methods, an d attitudes among general practice staff are ambivalent. Objectives. We aimed to assess attitudes to cardiovascular health promotion , opinions about efficacy and perceptions of skills in lifestyle counsellin g in GPs and nurses from the same practices. Method. A questionnaire survey of 107 GPs and 58 practice nurses from 19 gr oup practices (100% response rate). Results. Practice nurses were seen to have the main responsibility for card iovascular health promotion. Although attitudes to health promotion were ge nerally positive, lack of training in lifestyle counselling was perceived t o be a problem. Few responders believed that they were very influential in helping people change their lifestyles. Beliefs about the effectiveness of lifestyle counselling were mixed, with cigarette smoking, physical inactivi ty a nd obesity bei ng seen as difficult to change. Beliefs in the effectiv eness of lifestyle counselling were associated with positive attitudes towa rds health promotion and greater confidence in training. No association bet ween personal health behaviour and attitudes towards health promotion were observed. Conclusions. It is recognized that health promotion involves more than the provision of simple information and advice, but GPs and practice nurses lac k confidence in lifestyle counselling skills. The attitudes of health profe ssionals are crucial to the implementation of prevention strategies and req uire regular review.