Article Text
Abstract
Background At present education on exercise medicine and physical activity (PA) promotion does not feature heavily within the medical curriculum.
Objectives The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of a self-directed educational tool (Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) exercise prescription booklet) on medical students’ understanding of PA in disease management.
Methods Students from 22 UK medical schools were invited to complete a brief online questionnaire before and after being provided access to the FSEM exercise prescription booklet.
Results A total of 205 students responded to the open invitation to participate. At baseline 59% of students agreed that PA promotion was an important part of a doctor’s job with 86% agreeing that PA was important in the prevention of disease. However, confidence to prescribe PA and knowledge of chief medical officer’s adult PA guidelines was low. Following use of the FSEM booklet students’ (n=53) knowledge of PA guidelines and confidence to advise patients about PA significantly improved (p<0.05). Correct response answers to case scenarios covering PA in disease management (specifically osteoarthritis and cancer) also improved (32% and 44% increase, respectively, p<0.01).
Conclusion Self-guided educational tools have the potential to improve the exercise prescription skills of undergraduate medical students. Future research should compare different methods of delivering education on PA within medical schools to determine the most effective means of integrating PA into the curriculum.
- physical activity
- education
- health promotion
- exercise
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Footnotes
Twitter @GemmaPugh2
Contributors PO developed the FSEM intervention booklet. MA, HL and LB collected the data. GP analysed the data and produced the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval Ethical consent was granted by the Queen Mary University of London Ethics Committee (QMREC2014/24/118).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.