Physicians' perspectives on implementing the prevention scheme "Physical Activity on Prescription": Results of a survey in Bavaria.

The prevention scheme called "Rezept für Bewegung" (Physical Activity on Prescription, PAP) enables physicians to formally prescribe participation in health-oriented sports programs to their patients. The PAP scheme aims to strengthen the binding character of physicians' patient counselling for physical activity. The research objective was to investigate the physicians' awareness and their use of PAP as a prevention tool in patient counselling, as well as perceived barriers to implementation. A cross-sectional total population mail questionnaire survey was performed in two districts of Bavaria. 2,821 physicians in private practice were contacted; the response rate was 32.7 %. Descriptive data analysis of 923 questionnaires was carried out using SPSS. Only 26.4 % of the respondents (244/923) were familiar with the PAP scheme, and only 7.7 % (71/923) used PAP at least once a month when counselling their patients. Key barriers to implementation include lack of information on the prevention scheme, a limited choice of local matching sports programs and an unclear commitment of health insurances to reimburse patients for participation fees. Every third physician distrusts PAP to be an efficient way of improving physical activity in patients. To foster the implementation of PAP in the future, awareness-raising campaigns and an expansion of sports programs might be helpful. In order to strengthen the physicians' confidence in the effectiveness of preventive patient counselling on physical activity, existing research evidence needs to be spread among physicians.