Health behaviour change and lifestyle-related condition prevalence: Comparison of two epochs based on systematic review of the physical therapy literature

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours are primary contributors to the prevalence of lifestyle-related conditions this century. To examine the potential impact of the seminal World Health Organization-endorsed Ottawa Charter on health promotion in 1986 on physical therapy practice, we systematically reviewed articles that focused on physical activity for general health, smoking cessation, optimal nutrition, weight control, stress management, and sleep hygiene over two epochs. A search strategy was conducted in Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature to retrieve articles published between 1986 and 1989, and between 2006 and 2009 in five leading generalist physical therapy journals, and to compare numbers of relevant articles that focused on the lifestyle behaviours of interest. Articles were retrieved through title page searches of online and in print issues. Changes over time were evaluated with the Fisher exact test. Over 20 years, only the number of articles on physical activity and sleep hygiene increased. Although no benchmark exists, publication trends in physical therapy with respect to lifestyle-related conditions are somewhat consistent with epidemiological priorities, at least with respect to physical activity. Our findings could further sensitise the physical therapy community to health promotion and the prevention of lifestyle-related conditions to meet societal needs this century, specifically, the need to develop clinical competencies related to multiple health behaviour change.