Physical activity promotion in primary health care: Results from a German physician survey

Figures & data

Table I. Factors associated with physical activity promotion in primary care settings in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (physical activity assessment and advice)

	% Assess and advise	Bivariate P-value	Multivariate OR (95%CI)
Total (n = 260)	54.9
Physician characteristics
Age		0.064	n.s.
Less than 50 years (n = 82)	46.3
50 years and older (n = 174)	58.7
Sex		0.420	n.s.
Male (n = 168)	53.0
Female (n = 92)	58.2
Specialty		0.088	–
General medicine^b (n = 208)	52.2
Internal medicine (n = 52)	65.4
Years in practice		0.069^a	–
Less than 10 years (n = 74)	47.3
10 to less than 20 years (n = 78)	53.9
20 years and more (n = 108)	61.0
Practice characteristics
Type of practice		0.240	–
Solo practice (n = 144)	51.4
Group practice (n = 115)	58.8
Region		0.004^a
Rural (n = 43)	41.9		1.00 (Reference)
Small town (n = 96)	51.1		1.53 (0.71–3.33)
Moderately-sized town (n = 72)	56.3		1.93 (0.87–4.32)
Large city (n = 48)	70.8		3.93 (1.55–9.99)
Attitudes of physicians
Perceived success in modifying patients’ physical activity		0.034	–
Low (n = 94)	46.2
High (n = 162)	60.0
I can offer my patients a great deal in the way of lifestyle counselling		0.009
Disagree (n = 83)	42.7		1.00 (Reference)
Agree (n = 173)	60.2		1.92 (1.09–3.40)
Lifestyle counselling is difficult in general		0.934	–
Disagree (n = 67)	55.4
Agree (n = 188)	54.8
Sources of information
Specialized books		0.031	–
Less than once per month (n = 150)	50.0
At least once per month (n = 109)	62.6
Medical journals		0.092	–
Less than once per week (n = 106)	48.6
At least once per week (n = 154)	59.2
Colleagues/experts		0.036	–
Less than once per month (n = 127)	48.0
At least once per month (n = 132)	61.1
Prevention guidelines		0.074	–
Less than once per month (n = 172)	51.5
At least once per month (n = 82)	63.4
Continuing medical education		0.042	–
Less than once per month (n = 125)	48.4
At least once per month (n = 133)	61.1
Cooperation activities
Sports clubs		0.021
No (n = 140)	48.2		1.00 (Reference)
Yes (n = 120)	62.5		1.75 (1.03–2.96)
Cardiac rehabilitation groups		0.049	–
No (n = 76)	45.3
Yes (n = 184)	58.8

OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; n.s., not significant.

– means that variable is not included in the model because of stepwise selection process.

Dependent variable: always/frequently assessing physical activity in new patients and advising at least half of all patients about physical activity (coding: 1 = yes; 0 = otherwise).

Percentages correspond to valid cases.

^aP for trend.

^bIncluding general and medical practitioners.