Helping Patients Adopt Healthier Behaviors

Assisting patients to improve health-related behaviors is an important responsibility of caregivers, including physicians, nurses, health educators, and counselors. From 1992 to 2000, diet and physical activity counseling took place in < 45 and 30%, respectively, of primary care physician visits by adults with coronary heart disease risk factors. 1 Physicians in primary care seldom have time to engage in such discussions and may be unsure how to discuss behavior change with their patients; 1-3