Background: Physicians (MDs) report difficulty including physical activity (PA) and exercise (PAE) as part of routine care. MDs who report previous educational training in PAE may prescribe exercise more frequently. We evaluated the effects of previous training on perceptions and practices of PA counselling and exercise prescriptions among MDs in Nova Scotia.Methods: MDs (n=174) across Nova Scotia completed an online self-reflection survey regarding their current PAE practices. MDs who reported previous training (n=41) were compared to those who reported no training (n=133). Results: Trained-MDs were 22% more confident performing PA counselling than untrained-MDs (p<0.005). In patient appointments, trained-MDs included PAE more often (51% vs 39%; p=0.03) but trained-MDs and untrained-MDs had similar rates of exercise prescriptions (12%; p>0.05). The most impactful barriers (on a scale of 1 to 4) were lack of time (2.5) and perceived patient interest (2.4), which were unaffected by previous training (p>0.05).Conclusion: Previous training was associated with a higher confidence to include PAE discussions with patients by MDs in Nova Scotia, but had minimal influence on their many barriers that prevent exercise prescription. Although some training supports MDs inclusion of PAE into their practice, there is a need for greater, more intensive educational training to assist MDs in prescribing exercise.

Research focusing on the introduction of daily mouth care programs for dependent older adults in long-term care has met with limited success. There is a need for greater awareness about the importance of oral health, more education for those providing oral care, and organizational structures that provide policy and administrative support for daily mouth care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the establishment of an oral care action plan for long-term care using an interdisciplinary collaborative approach.Methods. Elements of a program planning cycle that includes assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation guided this work and are described in this paper. Findings associated with assessment and planning are detailed. Assessment involved exploration of internal and external factors influencing oral care in long-term care and included document review, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with end-users. The planning phase brought care providers, stakeholders, and researchers together to design a set of actions to integrate oral care into the organizational policy and practice of the research settings.Findings. The establishment of a meaningful and productive collaboration was beneficial for developing realistic goals, understanding context and institutional culture, creating actions suitable and applicable for end-users, and laying a foundation for broader networking with relevant stakeholders and health policy makers.

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SUMMARYOver the past 20 years, the federal government and universities across Canada have directed resources towards the development of university-based health promotion research centres. Researchers at health promotion research centres in Canada have produced peer-reviewed papers and policy documents based on their work, but no publications have emerged that focus on the specific roles of the health promotion research centres themselves. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework, based on an in-depth examination of one centre, to help identify the unique roles of health promotion research centres and to clarify the value they add to promoting health and advancing university goals. Considering the shifting federal discourse on health promotion over time and the vulnerability of social and health sciences to changes in research funding priorities, health promotion research centres in Canada and elsewhere may need to articulate their unique roles and contributions in order to maintain a critical focus on health promotion research. The authors briefly describe the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC), propose a framework that illustrates six essential roles of health promotion research centres and describe the policy contexts and challenges of health promotion research centres. The analysis of research and knowledge translation activities over 15 years at AHPRC sheds light on the roles that health promotion research centres play in applied research. The conclusion raises questions regarding the value of university-based research centres and challenges to their sustainability.

RÉSUMÉBut: Comparer au moyen d'un plan d'étude transversale les caractéristiques démographiques et fonctionnelles des utilisateurs âgés et des non-utilisateurs de services de soins à domicile dans les centres urbains de la Nouvelle-Écosse (n = 533) et de la Terre-Neuve (n = 449).Résultats: Plus de Néo-Écossais et Néo-Écossaises (24%) que de Terre-Neuviens et Terre-Neuviennes (11%) reçoivent des services de soins à domicile. Dans les deux provinces, la plupart des gens dépendants par rapport aux activités de la vie quotidienne (AVQ) ne reçoivent pas des services de soins à domicile, et la plupart des utilisateurs de soins à domicile n'ont pas de dépendence par rapport aux AVQ. À Terre-Neuve, la dépendence et la démence sont plus fréquentes chez les utilisateurs de soins à domicile, contrairement aux utilisateurs en Nouvelle-Écosse ou le fait d'avoir 85 ans ou plus, de ne pas avoir de soutien dans la même habitation, de ne pas être marié et d'être limité par rapport aux activitiés instrumentales de la vie quotidienne (ATVQ) a pour conséquence une augmentation importante de la probabilité d'utilisation de soins à domicile. À Terre-Neuve, la tendance à recourir à des soins à domicile est plus forte chez les gens ayant une dépendence par rapport aux AIVQ.Conclusions: Si les soins à domicile doivent se substituer à des soins en établissement, il faut être prêt à adapter à un nouveau type d'utilisateur les programmes existants de soins à domicile.