Exercise is Medicine Canada physical activity counselling and exercise prescription training improves counselling, prescription, and referral practices among physicians across Canada

Exercise is Medicine Canada (EIMC) is an initiative that promotes physical activity (PA) counselling and exercise prescription within health care. The purpose of this study was to compare physicians’ perceptions and practices around PA counselling and exercise prescription following EIMC training. Physicians (n=46) from 7 different provinces completed questionnaires initially and three-months following an EIMC workshop. Three-months post-intervention, physicians reported greater confidence compared to baseline, for providing physical activity and exercise (PAE) information to patients (79% vs 55%; p<0.001), assessing patients’ PAE (69% vs 44%, p=0.005), answering patients’ PAE questions (78% vs 54%, p<0.001), providing PAE advice (71% vs 43%, p<0.001), and identifying which patients would benefit from referral to qualified exercise professionals (77% vs 52%, p=0.002). At follow-up, physicians reported PA prescription barriers as less impactful (out of 4; all p<0.05), including perceived patients’ lack of ...