What do general practitioners think about an online self-regulation programme for health promotion? Focus group interviews

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Geert Crombez¹  Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij¹  Myriam Deveugele²  Ann DeSmet³  Jolien Plaete³  Maïté Verloigne³ 

[1] Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Department of General practice and Primary health care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;

关键词: Health promotion;    Physical activity;    Healthy nutrition;    General practitioners;    Self-regulation;    eHealth;    Tablets;    Computer tailoring;    Feasibility;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-014-0214-5

 received in 2014-06-17, accepted in 2014-12-15,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundChronic diseases may be prevented through programmes that promote physical activity and healthy nutrition. Computer-tailoring programmes are effective in changing behaviour in the short- and long-term. An important issue is the implementation of these programmes in general practice. However, there are several barriers that hinder the adoption of eHealth programmes in general practice. This study explored the feasibility of an eHealth programme that was designed, using self-regulation principles.MethodsSeven focus group interviews (a total of 62 GPs) were organized to explore GPs’ opinions about the feasibility of the eHealth programme for prevention in general practice. At the beginning of each focus group, GPs were informed about the principles of the self-regulation programme ‘My Plan’. Open-ended questions were used to assess the opinion of GPs about the content and the use of the programme. The focus groups discussions were audio-taped, transcribed and thematically analysed via NVivo software.ResultsThe majority of the GPs was positive about the use of self-regulation strategies and about the use of computer-tailored programmes in general practice. There were contradictory results about the delivery mode of the programme. GPs also indicated that the programme might be less suited for patients with a low educational level or for old patients.ConclusionsOverall, GPs are positive about the adoption of self-regulation techniques for health promotion in their practice. However, they raised doubts about the adoption in general practice. This barrier may be addressed (1) by offering various ways to deliver the programme, and (2) by allowing flexibility to match different work flow systems. GPs also believed that the acceptability and usability of the programme was low for patients who are old or with low education. The issues raised by GPs will need to be taken into account when developing and implementing an eHealth programme in general practice.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Plaete et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015