Lifestyle medicine and physical activity knowledge of final year UK medical students

It has previously been reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that final year UK medical students are lacking knowledge of the physical activity guidelines. This study assesses whether the knowledge and training of final year UK medical students has improved, whether knowledge correlates with lifestyle choices and whether there is a need for lifestyle medicine training, which includes physical activity guidance, to be offered to this cohort.

A questionnaire consisting of nine key questions was sent to 1356 final year medical students from seven different UK medical schools.

Completed questionnaires (n=158) were analysed and revealed that 52% were unaware of the current exercise guidelines in the UK. 80% stated they had not received training in lifestyle medicine over the last 2 years while 48.1% were unacquainted with motivational interviewing. 76% wanted more lifestyle medicine teaching to be incorporated into the medical school curriculum.

These findings suggest that final year UK medical students still lack knowledge of the physical activity guidelines. In addition, there is a demand among this cohort for increased lifestyle medicine training which may in turn be an effective way of improving physical activity knowledge.