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Older Adults Receiving Exercise Counseling

Being physically active can prevent and help treat many of the most common chronic medical conditions associated with old age.

Chart: Patients aged 45 years or older who received exercise counseling from their primary care physicians, by sex and age, 2003--2005

The percentage of patients who received exercise counseling generally decreased as patient age increased.

Exercise counseling was defined as follows: "Any topics related to the patient's physical conditioning or fitness. Examples include information aimed at general health promotion and disease prevention and information given to treat or control a specific medical condition. Includes referrals to other health and fitness professionals, but does not include referrals for physical therapy."

The patient's primary-care physician or provider was defined by survey respondents in physician offices and hospital outpatient departments who responded "yes" to the question "Are you the patient's primary-care physician?" Visit data were reweighted to provide estimates of patients receiving counseling during any visit within the preceding 12 months.

During 2003--2005, among separate age groups of male and female patients aged >45 years, men aged 45--54 years were most likely (22.1%) to receive exercise counseling from their primary-care physician. Women aged >75 years were least likely (9.2%) to receive exercise counseling. For both men and women, the percentage of patients who received exercise counseling generally decreased as patient age increased.

DATA SOURCE: 2003--2005 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data files. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs.