Key ingredients for "changing minds": Determining the effectiveness and effective components of an educational intervention to enhance health care professionals' intentions to prescribe physical activity

Abstract

Health care professionals (HCPs) are vital conduits of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) information; however, few discuss LTPA with patients with physical disabilities. Changing Minds, Changing Lives (CMCL) is a nationwide, theory- and evidence-based seminar aimed at increasing HCPs’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (PBC) for discussing LTPA. The purposes of the current study were to examine the effectiveness and maintenance of a CMCL seminar on HCPs’ social cognitions for discussing LTPA, and to explore the key implementation variables that predict changes in HCPs’ cognitions. Prior-to, as well as immediately-, 1-, and 6-months following a CMCL seminar, 97 HCPs (M_age±SD=36.23±10.42; 69% female; 38% rehabilitation therapists) from five Canadian provinces completed questionnaires that assessed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs with regard to discussing LTPA. Key implementation variables that may influence HCPs’ cognitions were extracted from presenter demographic questionnaires and seminar checklists. Separate repeated-measures ANOVAs and post-hocs revealed significant increases in HCPs’ cognitions for discussing LTPA post-seminar (ps<.002); however, increases were not maintained at follow-up. PBC emerged as the strongest predictor of participants’ post-CMCL intentions (β=.45, p<.001). Although several implementation characteristics were related to changes in perceptions, hierarchical regression analyses for each cognition revealed that the number of seminars the presenter delivered was the only significant negative predictor of post-seminar PBC (β=-.18, p<.05). Future iterations of CMCL should include additional strategies to sustain HCPs’ LTPA-related cognitions over time. Future CMCL evaluations should measure additional implementation variables so that the effective ingredients for “Changing Minds” can continue to be investigated.

Acknowledgments: This research was partially supported by an Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation Award for Capacity Building in Knowledge Mobilization awarded to the first author and a Community-University Research Alliance from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to the second author. The authors would like to acknowledge The Canadian Paralympic Committee for their assistance with the dissemination of the new curriculum and data collection from the participants, as well as Krystina Malakovski, Krystn Orr, and Laura Tambosso for their assistance with data collection.