Personal physical activity and physical activity counselling among primary healthcare providers in Nigeria primary healthcare centres

Physical activity is an essential public health goal with crucial evidence in the prevention of non-communicable diseases thus examined in this study. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of personal physical activity and its association with physical activity counselling among primary healthcare providers in Osun state, South-west Nigeria. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study that used a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. Two hundred and eighty primary healthcare providers in Osun state, Nigeria, were recruited using a multi-stage sampling technique. The chi-square test was used to determine the association between personal physical activity and physical activity counselling. Among the respondents, the prevalence of personal physical activity was 78.2% while 70.0% usually counselled their patients on physical activity. Barriers to physical activity counselling include poor knowledge of physical activity recommendations, lack of time and counselling protocols. There was a significant association between personal physical activity and physical activity counselling (chi 2 = 8.930, p = 0.003). This study concluded that there was a high prevalence of personal physical activity and an association between personal physical activity and physical activity counselling among the respondents. The findings suggest a need for continued education programmes for primary healthcare providers to improve their knowledge of current physical activity recommendations, and sufficient time should be allowed during consultations for the physical activity counselling process.