When doctors prescribe exercise, their patients get moving... but general advice is not enough.

The study: Grandes, G., et al. Effectiveness of Physical Activity Advice and Prescription by Physicians in Routine Primary Care:
A Cluster Randomized Trial. Arch Int Med. 2009; 169(7):694-701.

The prescription pad is powerful.

A milestone study in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that when doctors prescribe exercise, their patients get moving. But according to the study, general advice is not enough. Patients need customized recommendations in order to get the most benefit.

Unfortunately, personalized prescriptions require more time, support and instruction-and time is a scarce commodity for most doctors.

The PREP program at ACAC, also called the physician referred exercise program, affords individuals who may have multiple health risks the opportunity to work with medical fitness specialists in a club environment.
ACAC's on-site nurse and exercise physiologists oversee the program, and participants receive individualized prescriptions for physical activity.

Participants work in small groups twice weekly and have access to all ACAC fitness amenities throughout the program.

So that more individuals have the opportunity to experience exercise, the PREP program is low cost and low commitment (60 days for $60). Since the program began, more than 5400 people have enrolled in the program. But the best news is that 66% of these program participants have continued to exercise, either on their own or at ACAC, after completing the program.

Do you have patients who could benefit from PREP?
For more information about the PREP program at ACAC, call Kelly Lynn at 434.409.8523.

Study Highlights

• The study was conducted with 56 physicians and 4317 physically inactive patients at 11 primary care clinics in Spain.
• Patients eligible for study participation were between 20 and 80 years old and did not meet current minimum recommendations for physical activity.
• Intervention patients received general advice and a specific physical activity prescription. The control group received only general advice.
• At 6 months, intervention patients had increased physical activity more than controls.

Conclusion

The study authors write:

".family physicians may enable inactive patients to increase their physical activity levels, producing significant results at population level and clinically relevant results when physical activity is prescribed. This supports the prescription of a physical activity plan specifying the frequency, intensity, duration and progression over time instead of minimal advice, which yields poor results but is predominant in primary care."

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