Developing physical activity counselling in primary care through participatory action approach

BACKGROUND: Many adults are insufficiently physically active for health. Counselling is the main method to promote physical activity (PA) in primary care but often implemented inadequately. The aim of this study was to increase health professionals’ i) know-how about health-related PA and PA counselling, ii) implementation and quality of PA counselling, iii) familiarity with and use of Physical Activity Prescription (PAP), iv) internal and external collaboration and v) use of electronic patient record system in PA counselling. METHODS: Four Finnish health centres participated. Each nominated a working group for reaching the goals through a 6-month development work, which was supported with monthly tutorials by the research group. The outcome evaluation of the development work included 19 variables, which reflected the five goals and were assessed before (baseline) and after the development work (follow-up). Variable-specific differences in proportions (%) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CI) between the time points indicated change. The measures were questionnaires to the health professionals (N = 75 at baseline and N = 80 at follow-up) and patients (N = 441 and N = 431), professionals’ record sheets on patient visits (N = 1008 and N = 1000), and telephone interviews to external partners (N = 48 and N = 28). The process was evaluated with the extent the working group members participated in the development work and with the implementation of development actions. Assessment was based on meeting minutes of tutorials and working group meetings. RESULTS: Health professionals’ familiarity with PAP (questionnaire, change 39 %-points; 95 % CI 26.5 to 52.5) and use of PAP (questionnaire, 32 %-points; 95 % CI 18.9 to 45.1 and record sheet, 4 %-points; 95 % CI 2.7 to 5.3) increased. A greater proportion of professionals had agreed in their working unit on using PAP (questionnaire, 32 %-points; 95 % CI 20.3 to 43.7) and used PAP as a referral to other health professionals (record sheet, 1 %-point; 95 % CI 0.3 to 1.7). Also the know-how of PA and PA counselling showed improvement but not statistically significantly. The working group members participated unevenly in the development work and had difficulties in allocating time for the work. This was seen in limited number of actions implemented. CONCLUSIONS: The study was able to achieve some improvements in the familiarity with and use of PAP and to lesser extent in the know-how of health-related PA and PA counselling. To observe changes in other goals, which targeted more at organisational, inter-professional and multi-sectorial level, may have required more long-term actions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12875-016-0540-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.