Adult Physical Activity Counseling by Health Professionals in Brazil: A National Urban Population Survey.
BACKGROUND
Physical activity counseling is an attribution of health professionals. As such, this paper aims to analyze the receipt of this form of counseling.


METHODS
Cross-sectional national study interviewing 12,402 adults living in the urban area of 100 Brazilian municipalities.


RESULTS
Overall counseling prevalence was 30%, falling to 20% when considering only counseling provided by health professionals. Counseling was significantly more frequent among women and among individuals who were older, married, had higher socioeconomic status, were former smokers, physically active, and reporting hypertension, diabetes, and excess weight.


CONCLUSIONS
Little counseling was found to be done, this being a missed opportunity for health promotion. Health services and professionals therefore need to be trained and encouraged to provide adequate information to all health service users on the benefits of leading healthy lifestyles.
Dept of Social Medicine, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Suele Manjourany
SM
Duro
Elaine
E
Tomasi
Fernando Vinholes
FV
Siqueira
Denise Silva
DS
Silveira
Elaine
E
Thumé
Luiz Augusto
LA
Facchini
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult