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Educating Medical Students in Counselling Older Adults about Exercise: The Impact of a Physical Activity Module

  • Original Research
  • Clinics and Public Health
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The Journal of Frailty & Aging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Exercise courses during medical school contribute to medical students’ confidence in promoting physical activity to their patients. However, there is still a lack of uniform physical activity education across medical school curricula to equip medical students with the necessary skills and knowledge to counsel their patients about exercise.

Objective

To determine the effects of a 1.5-hour physical activity module including a one-hour exercise tutorial combined with a 30-minute practical counselling session on senior medical students’ perceptions of the importance of exercise and their perceived competence in advising older people about exercise.

Design

Pre-post survey.

Setting

University campus.

Participants

161 senior medical students taking part in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Geriatric Medicine course in 2015 (control group) and 2016 (intervention group).

Measurement

The modified Exercise and Physical Activity Competence Questionnaire (EPACQ) was administered before and after a 4.5-week Geriatric Medicine Course. Scores ranged from 1 (not important or competent) to 6 (very important or competent). The independent T-Test and repeated-measures ANOVA was used to determine differences between intervention and control group.

Results

Medical students perceived exercise-related skills to be highly important (score ≥4) in both the intervention (4.85 ± 0.37) and control group (4.78 ± 0.67), pre-course. The overall perceived importance could not be significantly increased by the physical activity module (P=0.082). The physical activity module, however, improved medical students’ perceived competence in six out of ten exercise-related skills, and increased their overall perceived competence in counselling older people about exercise (P<0.001).

Conclusion

A 1.5-hour physical activity module improves senior medical students’ perceived competence in counselling older people about exercise. This research proves that little teaching space is needed to impact positively on medical students’ exercise counselling abilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adelaide Geriatrics Training and Research with Aged Care (G-TRAC) Centre, Adelaide Medical School, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South, Australia, Australia

    Agathe Daria Jadczak, K. L. Tam & R. Visvanathan

  2. Aged and Extended Care Services, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Agathe Daria Jadczak, K. L. Tam & R. Visvanathan

  3. National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence Frailty and Healthy Ageing, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Agathe Daria Jadczak & R. Visvanathan

  4. Aged & Extended Care Services - The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 28 Woodville Road, Woodville South, Adelaide, South Australia, 5011, Australia

    Agathe Daria Jadczak

Authors
  1. Agathe Daria Jadczak
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  2. K. L. Tam
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  3. R. Visvanathan
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Correspondence to Agathe Daria Jadczak.

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Jadczak, A.D., Tam, K.L. & Visvanathan, R. Educating Medical Students in Counselling Older Adults about Exercise: The Impact of a Physical Activity Module. J Frailty Aging 7, 113–119 (2018). https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2017.44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2017.44

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