ABSTRACT
Physical activity and exercise (PAE) improve quality of life and reduce the effects of chronic diseases. Primary care physicians (PCPs) play an important role to encourage PAE in patients. We aim to assess PCPs' current PAE consultation practices and their enablers/barriers in daily clinical practice. We had 64 PCPs (age [35.3 â± â4.7] y, 47 women) that completed self-administered questionnaires on PAE consultation practices, training, and confidence levels. PCPs (n â= â42) also completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form to assess their physical activity (PA) levels. We conducted correlation, one-way analysis of variance and a linear regression to assess the associations between enablers, barriers and PA levels to PAE consultation practices. On average, PCPs consulted on PAE in 49.7% of their daily clinical appointments. Majority of PCPs (70%) strongly agreed that more PAE knowledge were needed to increase consultation practices. Top three barriers related (p â< â0.001) to practices were lack of PAE education (r â= â0.47), patients' preference of pharmaceutical interventions (r â= â0.45) and lack of continuing education in PAE for PCPs (r â= â0.37). Physically active PCPs (health-enhancing PA levels, n â= â6) gave significantly more daily consultations in PAE, 73.2% â± â21.9%, compared to inactive PCPs (n â= â13), 37.4% â± â22.8% (p â= â0.013). In our regression output, PCPs who had higher PA levels consulted more on PAE daily (R2 â= â0.38, p â< â0.001) while controlling for age. Conclusion, PCPs require more knowledge on PAE and need be physically active themselves to increase PAE consultation for patients in their daily practice. Medical education should consider including more PA and exercise topics that may benefit both physicians and their patients.
ABSTRACT
This study explored the impact of online lectures that were developed using principles of cognitive load theory (CLT) and cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) on health profession students' lecture comprehension, cognitive load, cognitive engagement, and intrinsic motivation in learning. A total of 215 first-year undergraduate students in medical, dentistry, and nutrition programs participated in this pre-post quasi experimental study. The students attended a typical face-to-face lecture on Day-1 of the intervention, followed by a CLT-based online lecture 8 weeks thereafter. Their comprehension of the lecture topics was measured through pre- and post-lecture assessments, and their cognitive load, cognitive engagement, and motivation were measured immediately after each lecture session. The analysis revealed that the CLT-based online lectures promoted the students' comprehension of the lecture content (p < 0.001), self-perceived learning (p < 0.001), engagement toward the learning material, and motivation to learn (p = 0.025). It was also effective at reducing the students' intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads (p < 0.001). Hence, designing online lectures using CLT and CTML principles could be an effective method to promote students' knowledge and comprehension, cognitive engagement, and learning motivation. However, further research is needed to investigate the applicability and impact of CLT-based online lectures in non-health profession disciplines.
