Abstract

Background: Physical activity is a major factor in both preventing chronic illness and in controlling it in already diseased patients. It has been established that a physically active physician may be more likely to counsel patients about the benefits of physical activity and patients tend to adhere to exercise regimens when advised by a physician they think of as a role model.
Objective: To determine the amount of physical activity the family medicine’s residents adhere to and to determine if family medicine residents practice what they counsel to their patients regarding physical activity.
Materials and Methods: All family medicine residents in all of the training levels were recruited to take part in the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) survey voluntarily. Levels of physical activity were divided into three categories: low, moderate, and high, according to the guidelines of data processing of the IPAQ. Section two of the survey assessed whether residents in fact counseled patients with chronic prevalent diseases (coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, etc.) about physical activity and the ranking of the most important health determinants according to them. Result: The sample size consisted of 80 participants, all residents of the program from R1 to R4. We have found that the majority >70% of them had low level of physical activity. The majority (96%) did counsel their patients about physical activity especially when the patient had diabetes. Conclusion: Although residents of the joint family medicine program of the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were not, self-reportedly, physically active themselves, they were active in patient counseling regarding the importance of physical activity in achieving global health and well-being.