Aims:
Depending on the principle “exercise is medicine”, physicians are encouraged to prescribe exercise for treating chronic diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate Family Physicians’ exercise prescription (EP) knowledge and practice level, as well as the patient feedback through their perspective.
Methods:
145 research assistant and specialist physicians of Family Medicine branch in Ankara participated in our descriptive cross-sectional study. They answered a self-produced questionnaire that consisted of 6 sections and 15 questions; mainly presenting their approach.
Results:
There was statistically significant difference between participants’ EP frequency and learning EP at medical faculty and Family Medicine specialty training (Z=-2,25 p=0.024, and Z=-3,67 p<0.001, respectively); whereas learning at medical congresses or courses had no such effect. There was statistically significant difference between physicians’ thought of necessity and implementation regarding EP (p<0.001). A high percentage of participants (n=102, 70.3%) pointed out that the patients behave and comment as their expectations are not met when they prescribe only or primarily exercise; 127 (80.6%) remarked that patients have difficulty in adapting to EP. Many require a new guideline that is more appropriate for the lifestyle and abilities of the people in this nation and easily-applicable in primary health care centres (n=60, 41.4%). There was statistically significant correlation between the participants’ own exercising and prescribing exercise frequencies (r=0.169, p=0.042).
Conclusions:
The curriculum of medical faculties should include standardized EP lessons. Also, considering the quality of contents; patients’ expectations and maladaptation problems should be examined in detail and new practicable guidelines should be developed.
Keywords: Exercise, prescription, primary care, family medicine, physical activity.
