To Your Health

Take Two Wheels and Call in the Morning

'The Thought of Exercise Made Me Cringe'

Targeting Childhood Obesity

Commuter Shows How to Lose 90 Lbs

Life-Changing Bikes Given Away

'Viral' Campaign Seeks to Get People Talking About Bad Driving

Home

previous | next

Take Two Wheels and Call Back in the Morning

by Dave Glowacz

Say you go to see a doctor for some miscellaneous physical problem.
At the end of your appointment, the doc scribbles on her prescription pad, tears off a ‘scrip, and hands it to you. It reads, “Bicycle five miles three times per week for six weeks.”

Fantasy, right?

Wrong. Physicians have started to give their patients such instructions—called physical activity prescriptions—all across across North America.

So, who thought this up, anyway?

We don’t know who used physical activity prescriptions first. But we know that folks who work in public health consider it a no-brainer: Many Americans slavishly obey drug prescriptions; might they do the same for a scrap of paper that tells them to get active?

What does a physical activity prescription look like? Surprise: Of the ones we’ve seen, only a few look a lot like drug prescriptions. Some take the form of tri-fold pamphlets, explaining why movement makes for improvement. Others come with a directory of places one might go for dance classes, yoga, or swimming.

The activity prescriptions that do look like drug prescriptions have blanks for a doc to write the things you’d expect: what activity to do, how many times a day, and for how long.

Some docs, though, might not want to give patients such firm—and unimaginative—orders. So one type of prescription has the doc ask (and write down the answers to) these questions: What barriers to physical activity do you have? How could you overcome just one? What do you enjoy doing?

Another we’ve seen helps patients avoid physical inactivity: It lists stuff to avoid, such as watching TV (“No more than three hours weekly,” says the ‘scrip), elevators (“Walk one flight up, two flights down”), and, of course, motor vehicles (“Walk or bike”).

Why has the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation looked so closely at physical activity prescriptions? As we work more with community organizations, we end up talking with clinicians and public health professionals that work in these communities. These folks seek ways to reach across the gulf that separates the doctor’s appointment from a patient’s daily life. Physical activity prescriptions seem like a good bridge.

And across that bridge, the patient might find a shiny bike that we’ll help them ride, or a walk we’ll help them take. Our staff might act like activity pharmacists, dispensing and encouraging doses of biking and walking.

With unlimited refills.

Dave Glowacz is the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation director of education