Behavioral Counseling to Promote Physical Activity

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Release Date: August 2002

Summary of Recommendations / Supporting Documents

Summary of Recommendations

• The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against behavioral counseling in primary care settings to promote physical activity.

  Rating: "I" statement.

  Rationale: The USPSTF found insufficient evidence to determine whether counseling patients in primary care settings to promote physical activity leads to sustained increases in physical activity among adult patients. Controlled trials of physical activity counseling in adult primary care patients were of variable quality and had mixed results. There were no completed trials with children or adolescents that compared counseling with usual care practices. Data on the feasibility and potential harms of routine physical activity counseling in primary care settings are limited. As a result, the USPSTF could not determine the balance of potential benefits and harms of routine counseling to promote physical activity in adults. The USPSTF reviewed only the literature on the effectiveness of primary care counseling to promote physical activity. It did not review the evidence for the effectiveness of physical activity to reduce chronic disease morbidity and mortality, which has been well documented in other recent reviews, or review evidence of counseling in other settings.

Top of Page

Supporting Documents

Behavioral Counseling to Promote Physical Activity, August 2002

Recommendations and Rationale (PDF File, 81 KB; PDF Help)
Summary of the Evidence (PDF File, 226 KB; PDF Help)
Systematic Evidence Review (File Download)

Top of Page

Current as of August 2002

Internet Citation:

Behavioral Counseling to Promote Physical Activity, Topic Page. August 2002. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsphys.htm