New study explores the effectiveness of advising patients on lifestyle changes<\/p>\n
Guidelines normally recommend that health professionals advise patients on behaviour changes, or lifestyle interventions. Lose weight, watch your diet, stop smoking, get some exercise.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all heard these at some point in our lives. But how many of us really follow through with them?<\/p>\n
A team of researchers led by the University of Gothenburg (UGOT) in Sweden questioned whether patients make any concrete changes to their lifestyle following such advice. They found no conclusive evidence that lifestyle counselling in medicine works after receiving it. The findings were published in the journal \u2018Annals of Internal Medicine\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is often a lack of research showing that counseling patients is effective. It is likely that the advice rarely actually helps people,\u201d commented study lead author Minna Johansson, associate professor at UGOT and general practitioner, in a news release.<\/p>\n
The study examined 379 medical recommendations from the United Kingdom\u2019s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Of these, only 3 % showed that the recommended advice had a positive impact on behaviour based on scientific evidence. Another 13 % of this advice exhibited some evidence that the intervention was successful, but the certainty was low.<\/p>\n
The team also analysed additional guidelines from other major institutions worldwide. The results revealed that these guidelines usually overestimate the positive effect of the recommended lifestyle intervention and seldom consider the drawbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to improve public health by giving lifestyle advice to one person at a time is both expensive and ineffective,\u201d explained Dr Johansson. \u201cResources would probably be better spent on community-based interventions that make it easier for all of us to live healthy lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers introduced a new guideline aimed at policymakers and those who inform guidelines. They suggest taking into account an intervention\u2019s advantages and disadvantages before recommending it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guideline consists of a number of key questions, which show how to adequately evaluate the likelihood that the lifestyle intervention will lead to positive effects or not,\u201d concluded co-author Victor Montori, professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New study explores the effectiveness of advising patients on lifestyle changes Guidelines normally recommend that health professionals advise patients on behaviour changes, or lifestyle interventions. Lose weight, watch your diet, stop smoking, get some exercise. We\u2019ve all heard these at some point in our lives. But how many of us really follow through with them?\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_scj_primary_category_id":88,"_scj_featured":false,"_scj_featured_from":"","_scj_featured_until":"","_scj_featured_order":0,"_scj_visibility_class":"current","_scj_layout_family":"standard","_scj_article_style":"","_scj_display_overrides":[],"_scj_intro_image_id":18896,"_scj_intro_alt":"Does health advice actually work?","_scj_intro_caption":"","_scj_intro_class":"","_scj_intro_float":"","_scj_full_image_id":18896,"_scj_full_alt":"Does health advice actually work?","_scj_full_caption":"","_scj_full_class":"","_scj_full_float":"","_scj_media_type":"","_scj_media_provider":"","_scj_media_external_id":"","_scj_media_url":"","_scj_media_poster_id":0,"_scj_media_width":0,"_scj_media_height":0,"_scj_media_aspect_ratio":"","_scj_media_description":"","_scj_gallery_items":[],"_scj_related_post_ids":[],"_scj_additional_authors":[],"scj_layout_family":"standard","scj_media_provider":"","scj_media_url":"","scj_full_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smart-health"],"yoast_head":"\n