Published 15 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2084
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2084

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Half of patients given exercise prescriptions are more active a year later

Roger Dobson

1 Abergavenny

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

More than half of patients who were prescribed physical activity were more active a year later, research has shown (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2008.00820.x).

A study of 6300 patients who were given primary care prescriptions designed to improve their levels of activity shows that the proportion of inactive patients dropped from 33% to 17% after three months.

"Half of the patients increased their physical activity, with the largest increase found among those who were least active at baseline, which indicates that the intervention was effective in increasing physical activity in those who gained the most," say the researchers, from the Karolinska Institute and other centres in Sweden.

The authors say that although guidelines for physical activity indicate that adults should have at least 30 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity on at least five days a week, research shows that 60% of . . . [Full text of this article]


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