title: Lifestyle risk factors in general practice - routine assessment and management.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evidence based guidelines recommend that adults be assessed for modifiable lifestyle risk factors: smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity (SNAP) regularly. This article discusses the routine practices of GPs regarding assessment and management of these risk factors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  General practitioners participating in two randomised controlled trials completed questionnaires about their assessment and management of SNAP risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over half of the GPs usually assessed smoking and alcohol, and assessed a patient's readiness to change before offering advice. Diet and activity were assessed less frequently, with only 22% usually assessing diet and 28% usually assessing activity. Referral rates were low, with less than 10% of GPs reporting that they usually referred patients to programs. Less than 20% of GPs reported having difficulty referring to programs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chronic disease risk factors are common in the Australian population, and GPs are ideally placed to offer assessment, advice and referral to services and programs. Recent changes to Medicare rebates for prevention activity may encourage a greater focus on prevention.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales, Austria. e.denney-wilson@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Denney-Wilson
authors.forename: Mahnaz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fanaian
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Sanjyot
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vagholkar
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schütze
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mark
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011315:Preventive Medicine; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires