Intervention with health professionals about physical activity counseling in primary health care

• Main Author: Häfele, Vítor
• Publication Date: 2021
• Other Authors: Siqueira, Fernando Vinholes
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física & Saúde (Online)
• Download full: https://rbafs.org.br/RBAFS/article/view/14487
• topic: Counseling; Motor activity; Health centers; Health personnel; Health education; Aconselhamento; Atividade motora; Centros de saúde; Pessoal de saúde; Educação em saúde

The study aimed to evaluate the effect of an intervention focused on increasing health professionals’ counseling on physical activity for users of Basic Health Units (BHU) in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. It is a randomized community trial, with 17 BHU participating in the intervention group (IG), being health professionals subjected to an intervention with two lectures of 50 minutes each and receiving folders on the topic. Another 17 BHU were part of the control group (CG). The prevalence of physical activity counseling (carried out by health professional within the BHU and by community health agent at home) was determined through interviews with 30 users from each BHU, totaling 510 respondents in each group. The proportions and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) of all variables were calculated, using Fisher’s Exact test. IG had 259 health professionals at the time of the intervention, of which 218 participated in at least one meeting. There were no differences in the prevalence of physical activity counseling, either performed by health professionals in the BHU (baseline: 35.8% CI95% 31.8 - 40.1; Post-intervention - IG: 39.4% 95%CI 35.2 - 43.7; CG: 38.0% 95%CI 33.9 - 42.3), as for the advice given by community health agents at home (Post-intervention - IG: 29.1% 95%CI 23.5 - 35.5; CG: 24.9% 95%CI 19.4 - 31.3). It is concluded that the intervention was not effective to modify the prevalence of physical activity counseling in the BHU.