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Physicians should routinely evaluate patients’ physical activity habits
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A new American Heart Association scientific statement recommends that physicians routinely evaluate their patients’ physical activity habits.
“Physical activity assessment should be considered a vital health measure that is tracked regularly over time. All other major modifiable cardiovascular risk factors (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity and smoking) are assessed routinely. Physical activity status should also be assessed regularly,” the statement reads.
The scientific statement was designed as a guide to allow health care providers to make goal-specific selection of a physical activity assessment method.
“Multiple physical activity assessment methods provide reasonably accurate outcome measures, with choices dependent on setting-specific resources and constraints,” the task force wrote.
The statement includes a decision matrix to help providers select the most appropriate evaluation method for their patients, including low-cost or no-cost options such as questionnaires that patients complete when they arrive for their appointment and physical activity dairies.
It is also recommended that an exercise checkup should cover the types, frequency, duration and intensity of physical activity at work, home and during leisure time, according to the statement.
Providers should also counsel patients on how to include more exercise in their daily lives and do a physical activity assessment as part of routine medical care, according to a press release.
“Most health care providers have not routinely assessed physical activity levels among their patients because they have not had the right tools,” Scott J. Strath, PhD, scientific statement chair and associate professor of the department of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Health Sciences, stated in the release.
“The assessment methods presented [in the scientific statement] allow for a greater understanding of the vast number of options available to clinicians and researchers when trying to assess physical activity levels in their patients or participants,” the authors wrote.
The AHA recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity 5 days a week or more, or at least 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity 3 days a week or more. Moderate- to high-intensity muscle strengthening at least 2 days a week is also recommended.
For more information:
Strath SJ. Circulation. 2013;doi:10.1161/01.cir.0000435708.67487.da.
Disclosure: See the full statement for the authors’ relevant financial disclosures.