The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions in subgroups of the population on the counselling on lifestyle by health care professionals and the factors associated with this. The design was cross-sectional, based on a random sample of women and men aged 18-84 in south-central Sweden. The study was carried out in 2004 using a mail survey. Respondents who had reported at least one visit to a health care provider (and had also reported their weight and height) were eligible for this study. Multivariate logistic regression model was built to estimate odds ratios. In the area, approximately 49 percent of women and 62 percent of men who visited a health care provider were overweight or obese. Health care professionals asked those with raised BMI more often about their diet (normal-weight 14 percent, overweight 15 percent, obese 21 percent) and physical activity (PA) (normal-weight 17 percent, overweight 22 percent, obese 26 percent). Advising a change of habits showed a similar trend, although on lower levels than asking. An association with counselling about diet and PA was found for gender, age, country of birth, BMI, and weight-related comorbidities. The most notable was a strong association between health factors and reported counselling. Counselling about behaviour was strongly associated with smoking and risk-level drinking. The findings indicate that the majority of persons with lifestyle related risk factors did not receive lifestyle counselling. Obese persons, those with weight-related comorbidities, men, younger, and foreign-born people received diet and PA advice more often. The results show that further improvement of strategies for promoting a healthy lifestyle in health care settings is needed.
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