Awareness of the 5 A's and motivational interviewing among community primary care providers

The United States Preventive Services Task Force and numerous other organizations recommend the use of brief motivational interventions as evidence-based approaches to achieve effective behavior change. The extent to which community primary care providers are familiar or trained in these methods is not known.

To assess awareness and training in the use of brief motivational interventions among primary care providers.

Cross-sectional assessment of primary care providers' familiarity and training in the use of the 5A's and Motivational Interviewing (MI). Participants include physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses attending professional education events focused on women and heart disease across a single state. Familiarity with the 5 A's and MI, assessed using a five-point Likert scale, and prior training in MI were measured using cross tabulations and chi-square testing.

Of the 186 providers, only 32.1 percent were generally or very familiar with the 5A's and only 17.7 percent were generally or very familiar with MI. Although there were no statistically significant differences by provider types, family physicians may have been more familiar with the 5 A's while family physicians and general internists were significantly more familiar with MI than all provider types (p = .012). There was a significant association between recency of medical training and experience with MI training.

There is a low level of familiarity with brief motivational interventions among primary care providers. Increasing post-graduate training in the 5 A's and MI can be an important strategy to increasing the effectiveness of the primary care provider in helping their patients achieve lasting behavior change.