15.08.17
One in four GPs unaware of national public activity assessment tools
The majority of GPs in England are unfamiliar with national Physical Activity (PA) guidelines and are not comfortable advising patients on how much exercise they should be doing.
A study in the British Medical Journal surveyed more than 1,000 doctors, finding that only one in five (20%) reported being “broadly familiar” with the national PA guidelines, whilst 30% admitted they had never heard of them at all.
And though 70% of GPs said they were aware of the General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPPAQ), 26% were not aware of any PA assessment tools, whilst more than half (55%) said that they had not undertaken any training with respect to encouraging PA.
The report also concluded that the vast majority (80%) of GPs in England were unfamiliar with the national PA guidelines.
“This study highlights the need for significant improvement in knowledge, skills, and confidence to maximise the potential for PA advice in GP consultations,” the document stated.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said that without regular activity, patients were putting themselves at risk of suffering from life-threatening diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
“GPs will always consider a patient’s lifestyle – along with other physical, psychological and social factors that might be affecting their health – when making a diagnosis and developing a treatment plan, and this often will include conversations about their weight and lifestyle choices,” she explained.
“It’s really important that GPs and our teams are aware of up-to-date clinical guidelines around physical activity – and the tools available to us to best implement them in the best interests of our patients – so it is clear from this research that more needs to be done by Public Health England and others to ensure these resources are readily available to GPs.”
The RCGP chair added that when GPs were aware of the tools, use of them was stifled because of a lack of time and resources to do so effectively, particularly within the constraints of the standard 10-minute consultation, which is increasingly “unfit for purpose”, especially for patients with complex health needs.
“The RCGP is certainly playing our part in supporting GPs and our teams to encourage patients to live healthier lives – we have made Physical Activity and Lifestyle a clinical priority, and are producing a toolkit of educational resources for this purpose,” concluded Prof Stokes-Lampard.
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