More Activity, Less Risk: Tell Your MD How Much You Move

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It’s not fun for folks to admit to their doctor that they’re a couch potato.

But such a frank talk could help protect against chronic disease, a new study says.

People with the highest levels of physical activity have a lower risk of 19 different chronic health problems, researchers reported recently in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Those who got at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous exercise were less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, lung problems, diabetes, and a range of other debilitating ailments, researchers found.

On the other hand, folks who got little to no exercise had more risk of chronic disease, results show.

Based on these findings, researchers recommend that doctors ask patients about their physical activity, and provide encouragement to those who need to get more exercise.

“In our health care environment, there’s no easy pathway for a doctor to be reimbursed for helping patients become more physically active,” senior researcher Lucas Carr, an associate professor of health and human physiology with the University of Iowa, said in a news release.

“And so, for these patients, many of whom report insufficient activity, we need options to easily connect them with supportive services like exercise prescriptions and/or community health specialists,” Carr continued.

Most U.S. hospitals and health systems don’t bother asking patients about physical activity, researchers said in background notes.

For this study, researchers quizzed more than 7,000 patients at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center about how much exercise they regularly get, using a couple simple questions:

• “On average, how many days per week do you engage in moderate to vigorous exercise (like a brisk walk)?”

• “On average, how many minutes do you engage in exercise at this level?”

“This two-question survey typically takes fewer than 30 seconds for a patient to complete, so it doesn’t interfere with their visit,” Carr said. “But it can tell us a whole lot about that patient’s overall health.”

The study underscores the value of talking with patients about their exercise habits, even if it’s only a brief chat, Carr explained.

“We believe this finding is a result of those patients who take the time to come in for annual wellness exams also are taking more time to engage in healthy behaviors, such as being physically active.”

Further, doctors are likely to be reimbursed for this conversation, Carr added.

In a related study published last month in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Carr’s team found that insurers reimbursed health care providers nearly 95% of the time for providing exercise counseling to patients.

“Our findings suggest the recommended physical activity billing codes are reimbursed at a high rate when providers submit them for reimbursement, which reinforces the idea to make physical activity surveys and counseling services available,” Carr concluded.

More information

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more about the benefits of physical activity.

SOURCE: University of Iowa, news release, Jan. 2, 2025

Source: HealthDay

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