Are the physical activity habits of healthcare professionals associated with their physical activity promotion and counselling?: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play an important role in conducting brief physical activity counselling during consultations, representing one of the population's most cost-effective interventions for its promotion. Despite this, their clinical practice often falls short in addressing physical activity with the necessary depth and frequency. This study aimed to synthesise the literature concerning the association between the physical activity habits of HCPs and their attitudes toward physical activity promotion and counselling. METHODS: The systematic review followed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Its protocol was registered in PROSPERO under ID: CRD42023408302. In March 2023, a comprehensive search was conducted using key terms related to physical activity levels and HCPs counselling practices across the Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, APA PsycInfo, and CINAHL databases. Registered HCPs classified under the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) were included. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for assessing articles quality. RESULTS: The search yielded 6618 articles, with 51 meeting the inclusion criteria after filtering and cross-referencing. Predominantly cross-sectional studies were included, mainly involving HCPs responding to questionnaires regarding their physical activity habits and promotion and counselling practices. Heterogeneous results were found. CONCLUSION: High-quality studies mainly concluded that higher physical activity levels among HCPs were associated with more physical activity promotion and counselling practices. These findings are an important contribution to the relevance of the physical activity practice by HCPs and highlighting the importance of promoting its counselling in clinical practice.

Frailty and Health-Related Quality of Life Among European Older Adults: The Moderating Effect of Human Development Index.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a proxy for the social and economic level of countries, which is related to the health and well-being of older adults. This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of the HDI on the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life among European older adults. Participants were 23,972 older adults (53.2% female, M = 74.2 years old, SD = 6.75 years old) from 24 European countries, joining wave 8 (2020) of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Multilevel modeling was used to analyze nested data. Significant differences in health-related quality of life among the several European Union countries were observed (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.18, LRT (1) = 5568.07, p < .001). The HDI has been shown to moderate the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life among older adults, buffering the impact of frailty on the health-related quality of life. Since healthy aging is a priority for the European Union, policies mitigating the impact of HDI on the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life should be implemented.

Grip strength buffers the harmful association between multimorbidity and depression among middle-aged and older adults.

BACKGROUND: Grip strength (GS) is associated to both multimorbidity and depression, however its possible moderating effect is unknown. This study aimed to investigate GS moderating effect on the association between multimorbidity and depression. METHODS: Data from SHARE wave 8 was used. Participant were 41457 middle-aged and older adults (17954 men) from 18 European countries. A regression analysis was conducted for the moderating effect of sex- and age-specific GS quartiles (W) on the association between number of chronic diseases (X1) or multimorbidity (X2) and depression symptoms (Y). RESULTS: More chronic diseases were associated with greater depressive symptomatology (men: B = 0.39, 95 % CI: 0.35, 0.42; women: B = 0.42, 95 % CI: 0.39, 0.45). On the other hand, being in a higher GS quartile was associated with fewer depression symptoms, and this association was stronger the higher the quartile was. Having a higher GS represented a decrease in depression symptoms associated with multimorbidity for men (quartile 1: B = 0.85, 95 % CI = 0.74, 0.95 vs. quartile 4: B = 0.49, 95 % CI = 0.38, 0.61) and women (quartile 1: B = 1.08, 95 %CI = 0.97, 1.19 vs. quartile 4: B = 0.59, 95 %CI: 0.47, 0.70). CONCLUSIONS: Strategies aiming to reduce the impact of multimorbidity on mental health should promote muscle-strengthening physical activity among middle-aged and older adults.