Integrating Exercise Counseling Into the Medical School Curriculum: A Workshop-Based Approach Using Behavior Change...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Behavioral Science
• Public Health

Background:

• Physician counseling on physical activity (PA) is crucial for patient health but remains underutilized.
• Lack of knowledge and competency contributes to low PA counseling rates among healthcare professionals.
• Educational interventions are needed to improve physicians' confidence and skills in promoting PA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify behavior change techniques (BCTs) employed in an
• Exercise Expo
• workshop.
• To evaluate the workshop's impact on medical students' social cognitions regarding PA counseling.
• To assess changes in attitudes, perceived behavior control (PBC), subjective norms, and intentions to counsel on PA.

Main Methods:

• Second-year medical students (N=54) participated in the
• Exercise Expo
• workshop.
• Participants completed pre- and post-workshop questionnaires measuring Theory of Planned Behavior constructs.
• Repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to analyze changes in social cognitions.

Main Results:

• The workshop effectively utilized BCTs such as credible information, practice opportunities, and feedback.
• Significant improvements were observed in attitudes (P ≤ .01), PBC (P ≤ .01), and intentions (P ≤ .01) to discuss PA.
• No statistically significant changes were found in subjective norms (P = .06).

Conclusions:

• The
• Exercise Expo
• workshop successfully enhanced key social cognitions for PA counseling among medical students.
• Targeting subjective norms in future interventions is recommended to further improve PA counseling behavior.
• Workshop-based educational strategies are effective in improving medical students' readiness for PA counseling.