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The Victorian Active Script Programme: promising signs for general practitioners, population health, and the promotion of physical activity.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The Active Script Programme (ASP) aimed to increase the number of general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria, Australia who deliver appropriate, consistent, and effective advice on physical activity to patients. To maximise GP participation, a capacity building strategy within Divisions of General Practice (DGPs) was used. The objectives of the programme were to (a) train and support GPs in advising sedentary patients, and (b) develop tools and resources to assist GPs. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the effectiveness of the ASP. METHODS:A systems approach was used to promote capacity in Victorian general practice. Economic analyses were incorporated into the programme's evaluation. Participants were selected DGPs and their GP members. The programme worked with DGPs to train GPs and provide relevant resources. The main outcome measures were (a) changes in GP knowledge and behaviour and (b) cost effectiveness, based on modelled estimates of numbers of patients advised and adopting physical activity and gaining the associated health benefits. RESULTS:GP awareness and provision of physical activity advice increased. Although the programme's reach was modest, based on actual GP involvement, the cost effectiveness figures (138 Australian dollars per patient to become sufficiently active to gain health benefits, and 3647 Australian dollars per disability adjusted life year saved) are persuasive. CONCLUSIONS:The ASP increased DGPs' capacity to support GPs to promote physical activity. There is a strong economic argument for governments to invest in such programmes. However, caution is warranted about the maintenance of patients' activity levels. Programme refinement to encourage GPs to use community supports more effectively will guide future development. Further research on long term patient adherence through a multisectorial approach is warranted.

SUBMITTER: Huang N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1724736 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Victorian Active Script Programme: promising signs for general practitioners, population health, and the promotion of physical activity.

Huang N N Pietsch J J Naccarella L L Sims J J

British journal of sports medicine 20040201 1

<h4>Background</h4>The Active Script Programme (ASP) aimed to increase the number of general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria, Australia who deliver appropriate, consistent, and effective advice on physical activity to patients. To maximise GP participation, a capacity building strategy within Divisions of General Practice (DGPs) was used. The objectives of the programme were to (a) train and support GPs in advising sedentary patients, and (b) develop tools and resources to assist GPs.<h4>Objecti ...[more]

PMID: 14751940

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Project description:BackgroundWe evaluate the effectiveness of a physical activity promotion programme carried out by general practitioners with inactive patients in routine care.Methods and findingsPragmatic, cluster randomised clinical trial conducted in eleven public primary care centres in Spain. Fifty-six general practitioners (GPs) were randomly assigned to intervention (29) or standard care (27) groups. They assessed the physical activity level of a systematic sample of patients in routine practice and recruited 4317 individuals (2248 intervention and 2069 control) who did not meet minimum physical activity recommendations. Intervention GPs provided advice to all patients and a physical activity prescription to the subgroup attending an additional appointment (30%). A third of these prescriptions were opportunistically repeated. Control GPs provided standard care. Primary outcome measure was the change in self-reported physical activity from baseline to six, 12 and 24 months. Secondary outcomes included cardiorespiratory fitness and health-related quality of life. A total of 3691 patients (85%) were included in the longitudinal analysis and overall trends over the whole 24 month follow-up were significantly better in the intervention group (p<0.01). The greatest differences with the control group were observed at six months (adjusted difference 1.7 MET*hr/wk [95% CI, 0.8 to 2.6], 25 min/wk [95% CI, 11.3 to 38.4], and a 5.3% higher percentage of patients meeting minimum recommendations [95% CI: 2.1% to 8.8%] NNT = 19). These differences were not statistically significant at 12 and 24 months. No differences were found in secondary outcomes. A significant difference was maintained until 24 months in the proportion of patients achieving minimum recommendation in the subgroup that received a repeat prescription (adjusted difference 10.2%, 95% CI 1.5% to 19.4%).ConclusionsGeneral practitioners are effective at increasing the level of physical activity among their inactive patients during the initial six-months of an intervention but this effect wears off at 12 and 24 months. Only in the subgroup of patients receiving repeat prescriptions of physical activity is the effect maintained in long-term.Trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov NCT00131079.

Project description:Further research is needed to improve the evidence regarding determinants of physical activity (PA) as a crucial step to plan higher effective intervention strategies. The goal of the present study is to identify socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of primary care (PHC) insufficiently active patients that are associated with longitudinal changes in the level of physical activity.Longitudinal analysis of baseline socio-demographic and clinical predictors of physical activity change in insufficiently active PHC patients who participated in a PA-promoting multi-centre randomized clinical trial conducted from October 2003 through March 2006. The primary outcome measure was the self-reported physical activity assessed with the 7-day Physical Activity Recall (PAR), at baseline, 6, 12 and 24 months. Baseline covariates included sex, age, social class, anthropometric measures and other cardiovascular risk factors or associated diseases (Diabetes, HTA, tobacco use, etc.), and stage of readiness to change PA. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate longitudinal association of studied variables on PA change over the three follow-up measurements.A total of 3691 patients (85% of the 4317 recruited in the trial) with at least one follow-up measurement were included in the longitudinal analysis. At baseline, analysed patients (mean age: 50.6 years; 64.6% women) devoted 34.7 minutes and 2.36 metabolic equivalent hours per week (MET.h/week) to moderate and vigorous physical activity. Older age, male gender, higher social class, lower BMI, diagnosis of diabetes or hypertension, and measurement season were significant predictors of PA longitudinal change. The effect of baseline readiness to change on PA dose was modified by time, showing a positive gradient in favour of those with more readiness to change that increases significantly at 12 and 24 months (p-value interaction < .0001).Identified baseline characteristics such as readiness to change and risk factors can guide physicians to prioritize time and intervention efforts for maximizing their impact on insufficiently active PHC patients.

Project description:BackgroundIn the Netherlands, a substantial proportion of newly diagnosed HIV patients present late for care, therefore, we investigated the effectiveness of a blended educational programme for trainers of GPs designed to stimulate proactive HIV testing.MethodsGP trainers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam were invited to participate in a two days training programme incorporating evidence-based practice guidelines and multiple teaching strategies, including interactive lectures, discussion groups, e-learning and quality improvement targets. The GP trainers completed questionnaires before and after the programme to evaluate the effect of the programme. We also used six-monthly cumulative laboratory data from 2010 to 2015 to compare the participating GPs' HIV tests to the general trend in testing among non-participating GPs.Results150 GP trainers attended the first session, and 74 completed the questionnaires for both sessions. GPs median score on achieving their quality improvement targets was high and the quality of the programme highly appreciated. Between 2010 and 2013, the mean annual number of laboratory-documented HIV tests decreased by 9.1% in the 624 GPs in the control group, and by 13.0% for 11 GPs in the intervention group. After the programme, the annual decreases were 2.3% and 1.8%, respectively. Before the programme, the GPs in the intervention group had 50% more laboratory-documented HIV tests than GPs in the control group. After the programme, GPs in the intervention group had twice as many laboratory-documented HIV tests as the controls.ConclusionsWe provided a detailed description of a programme based on educational and clinical evidence. We could not retrieve laboratory-documented HIV testing data for the majority of GPs in both the intervention and control groups. Therefore, the limited results should be interpreted with caution as our findings may not be representative of all participants. The blended educational programme appears to have stabilized - at a higher level - the initially stronger downward trend in testing for 11 GPs undergoing the intervention, indicating that the programme may have had an impact on their HIV testing behaviour.

Dataset Information

The Victorian Active Script Programme: promising signs for general practitioners, population health, and the promotion of physical activity.

Publications

The Victorian Active Script Programme: promising signs for general practitioners, population health, and the promotion of physical activity.

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