Physical Activity Knowledge and Personal Habits with Recommendations for Patients: Self-Assessment by Primary Care Physicians

Abstract

Primary care physicians (PCPs) should be active and reliable promoters of physical activity (PA), but there is no strong evidence that their knowledge and personal habits contribute to this. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of PA recommendations provided by PCPs to patients in terms of their self-assessed PA knowledge and personal habits. This study used a cross-sectional design and data were collected through a self-reported online questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 202 PCPs from a large Lithuanian city, Kaunas, of which 122 were females (60.4%) and 80 were males (39.6%). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 29 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for Windows. The findings show that the frequency of recommendations related to providing PA to patients is statistically significantly dependent on PCP health-friendly or partially favorable PA habits, their self-assessed level of knowledge about physical activity, and their self-assessed competence related to providing PA recommendations to patients, but this is not statistically dependent on objectively assessed level of knowledge related to PA.