Beliefs and attitudes to lifestyle, nutrition and physical activity: the views of patients in Europe

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the EUROPREVIEW study was to explore patients' beliefs about the importance of lifestyle and preventive services, to assess their readiness to make changes in diet and physical activity and their willingness to receive support from GPs.

Methods: The study was done in 22 European countries, in 10 practices per country, with each 40 patients aged 30-70 years. The interview period was September 2008 to September 2009. The analysis was based on 7947 participants (52.2% females and 47.8% males).

Results: More than half of the patients think their lifestyle is important for their health: eating habits 53%, physical activity 55% and normal body weight 59%. Almost half of the patients think they have to improve their lifestyle in terms of eating behaviour (43%), physical activity (48%) and body weight (48%). More than half of the patients say they have plans to change and two-thirds say they are confident to succeed. Two-thirds of the patients say that they would like to receive support by their GP. About half of patients reported that GPs initiated a discussion about these topics.

Conclusions: This study raises a number of health promotion and prevention issues of interest for primary health care providers. There is a discrepancy between the expectations of patients and the performance of GPs. A high proportion of patients who visited primary care with unhealthy lifestyles do not perceive the need to change and about half of the patients reported not having any discussion on these topics with GPs or primary care team.