Health care professionals’ attitudes, behaviours and barriers toward exercise promotion among patients: A systematic review

Avsar, Pinar, Moore, Zena ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4692-9718, Nasaif, Husain, Moore, Barry, Patton, Declan, O’Connor, Tom and Renjith, Vishnu 2025. Health care professionals’ attitudes, behaviours and barriers toward exercise promotion among patients: A systematic review. PLoS ONE 20 (8) , e0330861. 10.1371/journal.pone.0330861

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Abstract

Objective: To determine health care professionals’ (HCPs) attitudes, behaviours, and barriers toward exercise promotion among patients. Method: Using systematic review methodology, we included published studies focusing on health care professionals’ attitudes, behaviours, and barriers towards exercise promotion among patients. The search was conducted in June 2023, using the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus, and Scopus databases, and returned 352 records, of which 34 met the inclusion criteria. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool was used for quality appraisal. Results: Results revealed that HCPs hold a positive attitude towards advocating physical activity. Further physical activity was prescribed to achieve a number of objectives, including enhancing physical function, encouraging an active lifestyle, preventing complications, monitoring progress or compliance, and preventing functional decline. Barriers to exercise promotion identified related to four overarching categories: health professional-based barriers, perceived patient-related barriers, organisational barriers and health system-related barriers. Conclusion: This review highlights positive attitudes of healthcare professionals toward promoting physical activity, as well as persistent barriers that hinder effective implementation. Addressing these barriers requires a comprehensive approach, including tailored support for healthcare professionals and improved organisational and systemic structures. Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies aimed at overcoming these obstacles and enhancing physical activity promotion.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1932-6203
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 September 2025
Date of Acceptance:	6 August 2025
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2025 09:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180851

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