Exercise prescription: a clinical trial.
To assess the effectiveness of physician prescribed exercise, health education, and patient self-monitoring, 124 firefighters were medically screened and randomly allocated to a control and two treatment groups. Physiologic and reporting methods were employed to assess adherence to regular exercise at three months and six months after the initial exercise prescription. Addition of a health education program significantly improved compliance over that achieved by a physician consultation. Self-monitoring did not produce a further increase in compliance. Improvement in the treatment groups was limited to three months after prescription; at six months, the treatment and control populations had similar exercise patterns.
D000328:Adult; D005390:Fires; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010349:Patient Compliance; D005082:Physical Exertion; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data