The Article in Brief

A Medical Assistant-Based Program to Promote Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care

Robert L. Ferrer , and colleagues

Background Most primary care patients have at least one of four major health risk behaviors: smoking, risky drinking, low physical activity, or unhealthy diet. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of a medical assistant-driven program to screen for the unhealthy behaviors, arrange appropriate interventions, and ultimately reduce unhealthy behaviors.

What This Study Found The medical assistant program was much more effective than usual care at linking patients with interventions, more than doubling the proportion of patients referred. Despite the process improvement, however, the program did not succeed in changing any of the four health behaviors.

Implications

• The study results underscore the difficulties in changing health behaviors.
• The authors call for more professional development for medical assistants taking on expanded roles, as well as further work in developing systems to support long-term improvements in patients’ behaviors.