To investigate the awareness and application of exercise prescription among general practice faculty in Taiyuan City, and to analyze the related factors.

A questionnaire survey on the awareness and application of exercise prescriptions was conducted from July to September 2021 among general practice faculty in Taiyuan City selected by stratified random sampling method. The influencing factors of awareness and application were analyzed with logistic regression.

A total of 589 general practice faculty were enrolled in the study, 342 of whom were females (58.06%). The overall awareness rate of exercise prescription was 38.74% (1 369/3 534); the awareness rate of basic knowledge was 56.08% (991/1 767) and the awareness rate of core knowledge was 21.39% (378/1 767). Logistic analysis showed that specialty as general practitioner (OR=1.66, 95%CI:1.07-2.57, P=0.024), experience of exercise prescriptions (OR=2.07, 95%CI:1.37-3.12, P=0.001) and willingness of public promotion of exercise benefits (OR=2.08, 95%CI:1.05-4.15, P=0.037) were factors related to higher awareness of exercise prescription. The survey showed that 231 responders (39.22%) had given patients exercise guidance, among whom 125 (54.11%) gave oral and specific practice guidance, 206 (89.18%) would ask patients to perform health screening before exercise, and 184 (79.65%) performed health fitness evaluation. The knowledge used for guidance was mostly from textbooks or related guidelines (42.42%, n=98), but none of them had prescribed standardized exercise prescriptions.

The survey shows that the knowledge and application rate is relatively low among general practice faculty in Taiyuan City. It is necessary to strengthen the training of exercise prescription for them.

Exercise; Exercise prescription; General practice; Awareness; Application