title: [Argentinean general practitioners' practice and counseling regarding physical activity].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Investigating general practitioners' (GP) physical activity and to what extent their own physical activity affects counselling their patients in clinical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional, exploratory study; sample size was 115 (82 women and 33 men). The survey involved using a self-administered questionnaire at the GPs' annual congress in 2011, using a specially-designed, on-line questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This questionnaire revealed that about 76% of the female GPs did give advice concerning physical activity to their patients while the respective prevalence in men was 33 %. Regarding advice concerning physical activity to patients having non-communicable diseases, 73 % of women GPs always seemed to recommend physical activity for them while the corresponding prevalence in men was 27 %. Around 97 % (n=62) of the female GPs and 93 % (n=25) of male GPs asked their patients about their physical activity pattern; however, this study revealed that only 35 % (n=23) of male and 46 % (n=12) of female GPS were actually familiar with the latest recommendations concerning physical activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No relationship was found between GPs' physical activity level and their counselling in practice concerning physical activity or their current knowledge of the topic. The study showed that GPs stated that physical activity was important for their patients, although few of them engaged in types of physical activity during their leisure-time. There would thus seem to be an urgent need for training GPs in prescribing physical activity at primary healthcare level to increase their patients' involvement in some form of physical activity.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Universitario de la Salud, Fundación H. A Barceló, Argentina.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramírez-Cardona
authors.affiliation: Subdirección de las Enfermedades no Transmisibles, Dirección de la Prevención y Promoción, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, Colombia.
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Trejo-Varón
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Prevención de las Enfermedades Crónicas no-Transmisibles en América Latina, Argentina.
authors.forename: Noel C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Barengo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D037001:Directive Counseling; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires