title: Impact of integrating a physical activity counsellor into the primary health care team: physical activity and health outcomes of the Physical Activity Counselling randomized controlled trial.
abstract: The purpose of this paper was to report the physical activity and health outcomes results from the Physical Activity Counselling (PAC) trial. Patients (n = 120, mean age 47.3 ± 11.1 years, 69.2% female) who reported less than 150 min of physical activity per week were recruited from a large community-based Canadian primary care practice. After receiving brief physical activity counselling from their provider, they were randomized to receive 6 additional patient-centered counselling sessions over 3 months from a physical activity counsellor (intensive-counselling group; n = 61), or no further intervention (brief-counselling group; n = 59). Physical activity (self-reported and accelerometer) was measured every 6 weeks up to 25 weeks (12 weeks postintervention). Quality of life was also assessed, and physical and metabolic outcomes were evaluated in a randomly selected subset of patients (33%). In the intent-to-treat analyses of covariance, the intensive-counselling group self-reported significantly higher levels of physical activity at 6 weeks (p = 0.009) and 13 weeks (p = 0.01). There were no differences in self-reported physical activity between the groups after the intervention in the follow-up period, nor was there any increase in accelerometer-measured physical activity. Finally, the intensive-counselling patients showed greater decreases in percent body fat and total fat mass from 13 weeks to 25 weeks. Results for physical activity depended on the method used, with positive short-term results with self-report and no effects with the accelerometers. Between-group differences were found for body composition in that the intensive-counselling patients decreased more. A multisite randomized controlled trial with a longer intensive intervention and follow-up is warranted.
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. mfortier@uottawa.ca
authors.forename: Michelle S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Fortier
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hogg
authors.forename: Tracey L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Sigal
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boulay
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Doucet
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bisson
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beaulac
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Culver
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002170:Canada; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids