One-day workshop-based training improves physical activity prescription knowledge in Latin American physicians: a...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Public Health
• Exercise Science

Background:

• Physical inactivity is a global pandemic linked to non-communicable diseases.
• Medical doctors (MDs) require enhanced skills in lifestyle counseling for patient prevention and treatment.
• The Exercise is Medicine® (EIM®) initiative aims to improve MDs' physical activity (PA) prescription knowledge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess knowledge gain among MDs participating in a standardized PA prescription workshop.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a one-day EIM® certification workshop in Latin America (LA).
• To determine if knowledge improvement varied by medical specialty.

Main Methods:

• A 20-question multiple-choice test on PA topics was administered pre- and post-workshop.
• 1044 MDs across 12 LA countries participated in 41 workshops from January 2014 to January 2015.
• Knowledge gain was measured using normalized gain and relative gain metrics; t-tests analyzed differences between specialties.

Main Results:

• Test scores increased from 67% to 82% (p <0.001), with an average individual relative gain of 29%.
• Class-average normalized gain was 46%, with significant variation by country (9.3% to 73%).
• General practitioners (GPs) and family medicine MDs showed substantial knowledge improvement, comparable to other primary care specialists.

Conclusions:

• The one-day PA prescription workshop positively impacted MDs' knowledge in Latin America.
• This workshop serves as an effective continuing education strategy for PA assessment, counseling, and prescription.
• Further research is needed to confirm the impact of this training on actual PA counseling practices.