- Marcia G Ory: School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, Texas, USA. mory@srph.tamhsc.edu
CONTEXT: Although physician influence can be especially powerful with older adults, relatively little is known about how primary care physicians (PCPs) interact with their patients regarding lifestyle issues.
OBJECTIVE: To document the length of time that PCPs discuss lifestyle issues with their older patients and to examine patient, physician, and contextual correlates.
DESIGN: Descriptive and multivariate analysis of videotapes of physician-patient encounters.
SETTING: Medical encounters from 3 primary care ambulatory settings.
PATIENTS: There were 116 ongoing medical encounters with patients aged 65 years or older.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Total time spent in physical activity (PA) discussions and total time spent discussing PA, nutrition, and smoking during the medical encounter.
RESULTS: Very little time was spent in lifestyle discussions. On average, PA was discussed for less than a minute (58.28 seconds) and nutrition for slightly less than 90 seconds (83.11 seconds). Only about 10% of the average 17-minute, 22-second encounter was spent on physical activity, nutrition, or smoking topics. Physician supportiveness score (beta = 8.92, P