PA advice in GP consultations
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration of how general practitioners provide physical activity advice during consultations with patients
IRAS ID
278282
Contact name
Adam Grice
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
The personal and population health consequences of physical inactivity are well documented. Lifestyle support, including physical activity is a fundamental aspect of high quality primary care. General Practitioners (GP) have a key role in promoting physical activity, however general practice is under extreme pressure from rising demands and workforce shortages. Given an average GP consultation time of 9.22 minutes, physical activity discussions are seldom the focus of the consultation and any such opportunistic intervention must be necessarily brief.
To improve upon primary care physical activity interventions we need a better understanding of what physical activity advice is currently being given to patients in primary care consultations. An online survey of 1013 GPs in England highlighted clinicians lack knowledge and confidence in promoting physical activity during consultations. As routinely recorded data from medical records are subject to limitations, video-recorded consultations are recommended for researching doctor-patient interactions.
The proposed study will examine how General Practitioners deliver physical activity advice to patients in primary care consultations using data already collected during the ‘Bristol Archive Project’ (REC 14/SW/0112), also known as the ‘One in a Million’ study. This archive of video-recorded consultations, plus linked survey data (patient and GP questionnaires, related primary care records), was collected between July 2014 and April 2015 with 23 GPs from 12 practices in the South West of England. We are aware that 42, of the 300 recorded consultations which have consent to be used by researchers subject to further ethical approval, contain data that discus activity, exercise or sport within the treatment recommendations. We will assess when physical activity advice was introduced and how long was spent discussing this. We will also use a consultation analysis tool to assess the content and quality of physical activity advice using current best practice organisational resources and the Global Consultation Rating Scale.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/YH/0194
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion