Physician-patient interactions regarding diet, exercise, and smoking

Objectives. The objectives were to determine the rate of physician/patient discussions regarding diet, exercise, and smoking and to assess the effect of such discussions on behavior change. Methods. In a telephone survey of Connecticut adults, respondents who had a routine checkup in the past year (n = 433) were asked whether their physic ians had asked them about their dietary habits, exercise, or smoking, and a bout any efforts to modify these behaviors during the preceding year. Results. Diet was addressed with 50% of the subjects, exercise with 56%, an d smoking status with 77%. Respondents who were asked about their diet were more likely to have changed their fat or fiber intake in the past year tha n those not asked (64 vs 48%, P = 0.002) and were somewhat more likely to h ave lost weight (46 vs 37%; P = 0.061); the differences were even greater a mong 94 overweight subjects (64 vs 47%; P = 0.099), No behavior change was associated with discussions of exercise or smoking. Conclusions. Physicians have the potential to impact health behaviors, espe cially those related to diet, through simple discussions during routine che ckups, but only about half are using this opportunity, (C) 2000 American He alth Foundation and Academic Press.