Perceptions and attitudes of primary healthcare providers in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia, toward the promotion of physical activity

Background: Physical inactivity increases the risk of several chronic, non-communicable diseases that ultimately reduces life expectancy. Recently, major lifestyle changes in Saudi Arabia due to economic growth resulted in physical inactivity and low level of physical fitness. Health care professionals can play an important role in developing awareness about physical fitness among people. However, little is known about the impact of current health promotion practices of healthcare providers. This cross-sectional study evaluates primary healthcare providers' attitudes, knowledge and awareness associated with advising patients about PA during routine consultations. Methods: A quantitative survey on 803 respondents who comprised of general physicians, nurses, nurse assistants, dieticians and health educators in five districts of Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia was conducted using convenience-sampling method. Results: The data showed that most of the primary care staffs are quite enthusiastic in promoting physical activity among the patients and revealed that they routinely discussed and advised about the benefits of physical fitness. However, there are some factors acting as barriers for promoting PA, such as lack of time, lack of educational materials for patients, lack of proper training and protocols, lack of patient cooperation and lack of financial incentive. Conclusion: Proper strategies should be developed to motivate primary healthcare providers, so that they can encourage the general population to be more active physically. Hence, there is an urgent need to integrate PA promotion into practice consultation in Saudi Arabia. In addition, more efforts are required from the policy makers and health professionals to gather sufficient knowledge about current physical activity recommendations.