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University of Newcastle, Australia

Referral for Expert Physical Activity Counseling: A Pragmatic RCT

Overview of attention for article published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (89th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (63rd percentile)

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1 blog
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22 X users
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Citations

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117 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
Title
Referral for Expert Physical Activity Counseling: A Pragmatic RCT
Published in
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August 2017
DOI 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.06.016
Pubmed ID
Authors

Erica L. James, Ben D. Ewald, Natalie A. Johnson, Fiona G. Stacey, Wendy J. Brown, Elizabeth G. Holliday, Mark Jones, Fan Yang, Charlotte Hespe, Ronald C. Plotnikoff

Abstract

Primary care physicians are well placed to offer physical activity counseling, but insufficient time is a barrier. Referral to an exercise specialist is an alternative. In Australia, exercise specialists are publicly funded to provide face-to-face counseling to patients who have an existing chronic illness. This trial aimed to (1) determine the efficacy of primary care physicians' referral of insufficiently active patients for counseling to increase physical activity, compared with usual care, and (2) compare the efficacy of face-to-face counseling with counseling predominantly via telephone. Three-arm pragmatic RCT. Two hundred three insufficiently active (<7,000 steps/day) primary care practice patients (mean age 57 years; 70% female) recruited in New South Wales, Australia, in 2011-2014. (1) Five face-to-face counseling sessions by an exercise specialist, (2) one face-to-face counseling session followed by four telephone calls by an exercise specialist, or (3) a generic mailed physical activity brochure (usual care). The counseling sessions operationalized social cognitive theory via a behavior change counseling framework. Change in average daily step counts between baseline and 12 months. Data were analyzed in 2016. Forty (20%) participants formally withdrew; completion rates at 3 and 6 months were 64% and 58%, respectively. Intervention attendance was high (75% received five sessions). The estimated mean difference between usual care and the combined intervention groups at 12 months was 1,002 steps/day (95% CI=244, 1,759, p=0.01). When comparing face-to-face with predominantly telephone counseling, the telephone group had a non-significant higher mean daily step count (by 619 steps) at 12 months. Provision of expert physical activity counseling to insufficiently active primary care patients resulted in a significant increase in physical activity (approximately 70 minutes of walking per week) at 12 months. Face-to-face only and counseling conducted predominantly via telephone were both effective. This trial provides evidence to expand public funding for expert physical activity counseling and for delivery via telephone in addition to face-to-face consultations. This trial is registered at www.anzctr.org.au/ ACTRN12611000884909.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 22 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 117 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 117 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 21 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 12%
Student > Doctoral Student 11 9%
Student > Master 10 9%
Student > Postgraduate 7 6%
Other 20 17%
Unknown 34 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 27 23%
Nursing and Health Professions 16 14%
Sports and Recreations 10 9%
Psychology 8 7%
Social Sciences 4 3%
Other 14 12%
Unknown 38 32%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 22. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 December 2017.
All research outputs
#1,713,537
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from American Journal of Preventive Medicine
#1,240
of 5,273 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#33,029
of 327,198 outputs
Outputs of similar age from American Journal of Preventive Medicine
#24
of 65 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,273 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 41.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,198 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 65 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.