Abstracts
Abstract
Background: Providing physical activity counselling and prescribing exercise increases patients’ activity and cardiorespiratory fitness, but healthcare providers experience challenges in promoting activity to patients. Implementing educational intervention during medical training may be an effective strategy to promote physical activity and exercise counselling/prescriptions. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the impact of educational interventions on medical students’ physical activity counselling and exercise prescription perceptions and practices.
Methods: Systematic review procedures were registered in PROSPERO (ID# CRD42022331755) prior to conducting the study. Studies were included if they conducted an educational intervention to medical students or residents aimed at improving activity practices. Sources were searched in May of 2022 and included Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Academic Search Premier (n = 3412 citations without duplicates). The National Institutes of Health quality assessment tools were used.
Results: Fifteen interventions were included. The average quality of the included controlled trials (n = 6) and pre-post studies with no control group (n = 9) were 5.0±1.5/12 and 6.2±1.3/14, respectively. Most studies (n = 4/6) that reported the total number of medical students providing activity counselling to patients before and after receiving intervention observed improvements in exercise counselling behaviours. Eleven of twelve, and ten of eleven studies reported increases in confidence and perceptions toward various features of exercise counselling and physical activity promotion, respectively.
Conclusion: Despite the heterogeneous nature of intervention designs, this review supports that relatively brief interventions using a structured lecture format incorporated into curriculum promote acute improvements in medical students’ perceptions and confidence in providing exercise counselling, albeit based on low-moderate study quality.
Résumé
Contexte : Les conseils en matière d'activité physique et la prescription d'exercices augmentent l'activité et la condition cardiorespiratoire des patients, mais les prestataires de soins de santé éprouvent des difficultés à promouvoir l'activité auprès des ceux-ci. La mise en œuvre d'une intervention éducative au cours de la formation médicale peut être une stratégie efficace pour promouvoir l'activité physique auprès des patients et le conseil/prescription d'exercices. L'objectif de cette étude était d'évaluer l'impact des interventions éducatives sur les perceptions et les pratiques des étudiants en médecine en matière de conseils concernant l'activité physique et la prescription d'exercices.
Méthodes : La procédure de revue systématique a été enregistrée dans PROSPERO (ID# CRD42022331755) avant la réalisation de l'étude. Les études ont été incluses si elles menaient une intervention éducative auprès d'étudiants en médecine ou de résidents en vue d'améliorer la pratique d'activités. Les moteurs de recherche bibliographique ont été explorés en mai 2022 et comprenaient Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL et Academic Search Premier (n = 3412 citations sans doublons). Les outils d'évaluation de la qualité du National Institutes of Health ont été utilisés.
Résultats : Au total, 15 interventions ont été incluses. La qualité moyenne des essais contrôlés inclus (n = 6) et des études pré-post sans groupe de contrôle (n = 9) était respectivement de 5,0±1,5/12 et de 6,2±1,3/14. La plupart des études (n = 4/6) qui ont rapporté le nombre total d'étudiants en médecine fournissant des conseils d'activité aux patients avant et après l'intervention ont observé des améliorations dans les comportements en matière de conseils d'exercice physique. Onze études sur douze et dix études sur onze ont fait état d'une augmentation de la confiance et des perceptions à l'égard de diverses caractéristiques du conseil en matière d'exercice et de la promotion de l'activité physique, respectivement.
Conclusion : Malgré la nature hétérogène des modèles d'intervention, cette revue systématique soutient que des interventions relativement brèves utilisant un format de cours structurés incorporé dans le programme d'études favorisent de nettes améliorations des perceptions et de la confiance des étudiants en médecine dans la prestation de conseils en matière d'exercice physique, bien que la qualité de l'étude soit faible à modérée.
Appendices
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