Lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, and inadequate dietary levels of fruits and vegetables are major risk factors for chronic disease. 1 The importance of clinicians encouraging people to make lifestyle modifications is emphasized in many guidelines. 2 A study of 4,716 American adults found that patient-reported lifestyle advice from doctors was associated with corresponding behavioral changes (weight loss, increased physical activity) . 3 It is unclear how often Australian general practitioners provide lifestyle advice to patients and whether that advice is effective.
To explore these questions, we conducted a secondary analysis of data collected in the Australian Bureau of Statistics' nationally representative household survey, the 2020–2021 National Health Survey4. The survey included questions about demographic and socio-economic characteristics, health status, and lifestyle risks. Factors and behaviors and health service utilization. Participants were asked whether they had received any lifestyle advice from their general practitioner in the past 12 months, such as reducing or quitting smoking. Drink alcohol in moderation. Reach a healthy weight. Increase physical activity. Alcohol intake, smoking, and dietary behavior (combined fruit and vegetable intake) compared to 12 months earlier. 4 Sample weights were applied to the responses to estimate a weighted proportion of the total Australian population. We used R 4.0.2 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing) to examine the relationship between receiving lifestyle advice from a general practitioner and behavioral changes in a logistic regression analysis adjusted for potential confounders. I checked the relevance. We report adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The Bond University Human Research Ethics Committee approved this study (CD03279).
Of the 13,281 survey respondents (7,026 women, 50.5%) (Supporting Information, Table 1), 2,701 reported that their alcohol intake exceeded the recommended maximum level (20.1%) and 851 currently smoked. (9.1%), and 12,009 people did not meet the criteria. Minimum recommended combined intake of fruits and vegetables (91.9%) (Supporting Information, Table 2). Of all respondents who reported exceeding the recommended alcohol intake limit, 238 (8%) received advice to reduce their alcohol intake and 540 (21%) reported drinking less alcohol in the past 12 months. Reduced. Of the 804 smokers, 228 (27%) were advised to quit and 282 (34%) had reduced their smoking in the past 12 months. Of all respondents who consumed less than the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables, 1,072 (9%) received advice to increase their intake, and 2,153 (19%) improved their intake in the past 12 months. (Supporting information, Table 3). Respondents who received lifestyle advice from their general practitioner were more likely to change their behavior than those who did not (alcohol intake: aOR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.22-2.21; smoking: aOR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.26-2.72; Diet: aOR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.38-1.94) (box).
Limitations of our study include the fact that we examined National Health Survey data, self-reported information collected at a single point in time (snapshot or cross-sectional). Therefore, our findings should be interpreted with caution as they are influenced by recall bias and social desirability bias.
We found that lifestyle advice from a general practitioner can influence patients' health-related behaviors, but that only a small proportion of people remember receiving that advice. These results are similar to those from studies in the United States 3 and the United Kingdom 5 . General practitioners may not have the time to provide simple lifestyle interventions for all their patients, so effective lifestyle interventions that prioritize her advice are needed6.
Box – Lifestyle advice from a general practitioner and positive changes in lifestyle behavior over the past 12 months: Logistic regression analysis (unadjusted and adjusted)*