Primary Care Providers’ Level of Preparedness for Recommending Physical Activity to Adults With Disabilities

Abstract

IntroductionAdults with disabilities are more likely to be physically inactive than those without disabilities. Although receiving a health care provider recommendation is associated with physical activity participation in this population, there is little information on factors associated with primary care providers recommending physical activity to patients with disabilities.MethodsWe used 2014 DocStyles data to assess primary care provider characteristics and perceived barriers to and knowledge-related factors of recommending physical activity to adult patients with disabilities, by how prepared primary care providers felt in making recommendations. We used log-binomial regression to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between recommending physical activity at most visits and primary care provider characteristics and preparedness.ResultsMost primary care providers strongly (36.3%) or somewhat (43.3%) agreed they felt prepared to recommend physical activity to patients with disabilities. We found significant trends between preparedness and primary care provider age (P = .001) and number of patients with disabilities seen per week (P < .001). Half (50.6%) of primary care providers recommend physical activity to patients with disabilities at most visits. Primary care providers who strongly agreed (adjusted PR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.44–2.09) or somewhat agreed (adjusted PR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.22–1.65) they felt prepared were more likely to recommend physical activity at most visits compared with those who were neutral or disagreed.ConclusionPrimary care providers are more likely to recommend physical activity to patients with disabilities regularly if they feel prepared. Understanding factors and barriers associated with preparedness can help public health programs develop and disseminate resources for primary care providers to promote physical activity among adults with disabilities.

Analysis of Hearing Loss and Physical Activity Among US Adults Aged 60-69 Years

“…Second, further studies should address whether hearing rehabilitation or the use of hearing aids for those with hearing loss can increase physical activity. Third, a previous study 39 showed that there are still approximately 20% of primary care practitioners who do not feel prepared to recommend physical activity to patients with disabilities, including hearing limitation. Our results suggest that those with hearing loss may benefit the most from physical activity because they have lower physical activity level and imply that primary care practitioners should promote physical activity more frequently in this population.…”

Physical Activity Promotion: A Systematic Review of The Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals

“…Appendix B provides legends for all the tables in the paper. Twelve (12) of the 34 studies in this review, explored the perceptions of HCPs practising in Europe [53,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73], 10 were conducted in Australia and New Zealand [31,51,69,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80], five each from the UK [52,[81][82][83][84] and USA [85][86][87][88][89], two from Africa [75,90], and one from India [91]. The study designs were varied with 20 of the 34 included studies employing a cross sectional design [31,[65][66][67][68][70][71][72][73][74]76,79,…”

“…The other 14 studies explored the perceptions of heterogenous groups of HCPs [30,51,52,63,65,66,71,73,80,82,85,86,91,92]. The HCPs included in these heterogeneous groups included nurses [31,52,53,63,65,66,71,80,82,85,86,92], GPs [52,53,63,65,73,85,91], physicians [53,65,82,86,91], physiotherapists [63,71,73,80,92], dietitians [80,82,92], surgeons [63,80,86], oncologist [31,…”

“…HCPs' perceptions about key determinants of effective PA promotion including: PA knowledge, confidence in PA promotion, PA importance, role in promoting PA, PA assessment, how they promoted PA and the barriers and facilitators to effective PA promotion were extracted from all the 34 studies. The majority of studies (n = 27), recorded the perceptions of HCPs on how PA was promoted [ [31,69,73,74,76,79,80,82,89,90,92]; nine on facilitators to promoting PA [52,63,64,68,71,78,81,83,85,89]; eight on their assessment of PA [53,73,74,83,86,88,90,91] and three on the effectiveness of promoting PA [74,89,90]. Each of these key determining factors to PA promotion are described in more detail below.…”

Overview of Physical Activity Counseling in Primary Care

“…been cited in research, 37,38,46,47) wearable devices, 48,49) public health, [50][51][52][53] and clinical services as well as in primary care. [54][55][56] Kyu et al 28) detailed the dose-response effects of a higher level of physical activity on risk reduction of NCDs and cancers. Moreover, the global recommendations suggest physical activity for 2 or more days per week that strengthens the major muscle groups.…”