Lifestyle advice in UK Primary Care consultations: Doctors' use of conditional forms of advice

Objective: To investigate how doctors deliver lifestyle advice to patients in ordinary general practice con-sultations. Method: A secondary analysis of audio/video recorded primary care consultations between doctors and patients. Instances of lifestyle related talk were identified and analysed according to the methods of Conversation Analysis. Results: The most frequently used format for delivering advice was found to be if-conditional forms. Conditional forms work to convey how advice is relevant to the individual's health circumstances 1) to-picalising the problematic risk to the patient, 2) informing and warning the patient of reoccurring or future health risks, and 3) offering changes in lifestyle in addition to or as a replacement for medication. Conclusion: The results show that doctors use if-conditional constructions to navigate anticipated or actual difficulties evidenced through misalignment in delivering lifestyle advice, by conveying the importance of the advice to the individual patient. Practice Implications: Using if-conditional constructions when talking with patients regarding their problematic risk factors provides a technique enabling doctors to navigate the sensitivities associated with giving advice, whilst delivering personalised and preventative medicine. Crown Copyright (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.