The effect of personal lifestyle intervention among health care providers on their patients and clinics; the Promoting Health by Self Experience (PHASE) randomized controlled intervention trial.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of self-experience multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention on health care providers (HCPs), patients and clinics.


METHODS
We randomized 15 primary-care clinics (serving 93,821 members), matched by patient profile, to provide the HCPs, either intervention or control HMO program. We followed personally 77 HCPs and 496 patients, and evaluated clinical measurement rate (CMR) changes (January-September 2010; Israel).


RESULTS
HCPs within the intervention group demonstrated personal improvement in health initiative attitudes (p<0.05 vs. baseline), and a decrease in salt intake (p<0.05 vs. control). HCP intervention group's patients exhibited overall improvement in dietary patterns, specifically in salt, red meat (p<0.05 vs. baseline), fruit, and vegetable (p<0.05 vs. control) intake. Height, lipids, HbA1(C) and CMR increased within the intervention group's clinics (p<0.05 vs. baseline) with increased referral to angiography tests (p<0.05 vs. control). Within the intervention group, HCPs' salt pattern improvement was associated with increased lipid CMR (r=0.71; p=0.048), and lower HCPs' body weight was associated with increased blood pressure (r=-0.81; p=0.015) and lipid (r=-0.69; p=0.058) CMR.


CONCLUSIONS
HCPs' personal lifestyles are directly correlated with their clinical performance. Interventions to promote health through HCP's self-experience are valuable and somewhat haloed to patients and clinics, suggesting an adjunct strategy in primary prevention.
The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Health and Nutrition and Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Electronic address: irish@bgu.ac.il.
Iris
I
Shai
Clalit Health Services, Dan Petah Tikva District, Israel.
Dorit
D
Erlich
Chief Physician's Office, Clalit Health Services and Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Arnon D
AD
Cohen
Clalit Health Services, Dan Petah Tikva District, Israel.
Marianna
M
Urbach
Promoting Medical Information and Research Clalit Health Services, Dan Petah Tikva District and Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel.
Noga
N
Yosef
Nutrition & Health, Unilever, Israel.
Orna
O
Levy
The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Health and Nutrition and Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Danit R
DR
Shahar
D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D014481:United States