Promoting physical activity in clinical practice
Everyone, including patients concerned about their risk of developing dementia, should be encouraged to be physically active. All adults should be advised to participate in 30 minutes of moderate activity on most, preferably all days of the week. More vigorous exercise may confer additional health and disease prevention benefits.
Interventions in general practice that have been shown to have short term benefit in changing behaviour related to physical activity include:
- patient screening to identify current level of activity and readiness to be more active
- provision of brief advice or counselling on exercise
- provision of supporting written materials
- provision of a written prescription for exercise
Lifescripts are tools for GPs to use when providing lifestyle advice to patients, including about increasing physical activity. They include guidelines and prescription templates.
The RACGP SNAP guide provides recommendations and advice on implementing interventions to encourage patients to be more physically active.
The RACGP Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (the ‘red book’) summarise the recommendations for assessing patients’ physical activity levels and encouraging behavioural change when appropriate.
The RACGP Physical activity policy provides background information, recommendations and resources related to physical activity promotion in general practice.
The Implementing Lifestyle Change health professional education series has been developed by the National Heart Foundation and the RACGP, to assist GPs and practise nurses in influencing patients to adopt healthy behaviours including physical activity.
The RACGP website provides information on services provided by Exercise Physiologists , and links to the Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science referral directory.
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing website provides a range of information and resources related to physical activity, and links to state and territory health department websites, which provide information about the many state based physical activity initiatives and resources.
