Lifestyle medicine course for family medicine residents: preliminary assessment of the impact on knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and personal health

Purpose The WHO estimates that by 2020 two-thirds of the diseases worldwide will be the result of unhealthy lifestyle habits. Less than half of primary care physician graduates feel prepared to give lifestyle behaviour counselling. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of lifestyle medicine (LM) course on self-reported knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and health behaviour of family medicine residents. Methods Based on the Israeli syllabus for the study of LM, we delivered five face to face 20 H courses. Pre/post data were collected by knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and personal health survey: Results A total of 112 family medicine residents participated in one of the five courses, of which 91 (81.3%) filled both pre and post surveys. Participates showed an improvement in self-reported knowledge and capacity to manage patients in regard to smoking, weight management and physical activity. An improvement was noted in personal health behaviour of overweight participant's in regard to self-reported physical activity. Conclusions A comprehensive LM syllabus based course has a positive impact on family medicine residents LM counselling abilities. We suggest that LM course should be considered as a potential permanent addition to the family medicine residency programme.