Exercise is Medicine: The Prevalence of Exercise Prescription‐related Course Offerings in U.S. Physician Assistant Program Curricula

Abstract

Exercise has proven to be beneficial in the prevention of chronic disease. In addition, exercise can improve the pathogenesis and symptoms associated with a variety of chronic disease states and can also attenuate drug-induced adverse effects. Hence, exercise has been described as a drug-free polypill. Exercise is Medicine®, a joint initiative between the American Medical Association and the American College of Sports Medicine, was launched in 2007 to call on all health care providers to counsel patients and prescribe exercise in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. However, based on self-reported data, 51% of American adults still do not meet the national physical activity guidelines. Even more, the prevalence of inactivity has been reported to be much higher when the data is based off of objective measures, such as accelerometry. The high prevalence of inactivity is likely due to multiple factors, including under-education of medical professionals on how to council patients and develop exercise prescriptions. In the U.S. only 32.4% of patients seen by clinicians in 2010 received physical activity counseling that year. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of required course offerings in U.S. physician assistant program curricula regarding training in exercise prescription (Rx). Program websites were accessed in 2020 for information regarding course offerings in Master of Physician Assistant Studies programs. Only those programs whose course descriptions of all the required courses were accessible online were included in the analysis. Three individuals independently analyzed course titles, course descriptions, and topics (if provided) of all programs for the search terms “exercise Rx”, “exercise”, “fitness”, and “physical activity”. After the analysis was complete, the data was combined and discrepancies were spot checked by a fourth individual. The study aimed to determine how many programs offered courses with the terms “exercise Rx”, “exercise”, “fitness”, and/or “physical activity” in the course title, course description, or course topics. Ninety one percent (165) of U.S. programs were included in the analysis. Only one program offered a required course with the term “exercise Rx” in the title, description, or course topics. This was a two credit course entitled Public Health. Five programs offered courses with the terms “exercise”, “fitness”, or “physical activity” in the title, description, or topics. These courses ranged between 1.0-2.5 credits. Three of the five courses were named Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. The data suggests that physician assistant students may be under-educated in the area of exercise Rx, which may contribute to the high prevalence of inactivity.