Assessing Factors That Influence Healthcare Provider Attitudes and Practices regarding Place-Based Exercise Prescriptions: Results of Principal Components Analysis of a Newly Developed Survey Instrument.

Following this stage in survey validation, the 88-item developed survey could be shortened by eliminating items with low loadings. Providers may be more receptive to a shorter instrument, which could facilitate reliability and validity testing of a revised instrument. Further steps to validate the instrument include assessing consistent responses over time and considering predictive ability of the survey as an additional measure of validity. Results from the initial survey administration indicate that providers' lack of training regarding how to prescribe exercise and lack of knowledge of safe, affordable, or proximate locations for patients to engage in prescribed exercise present barriers to wider use of exercise prescriptions. Community-clinical linkages which network providers with area physical activity and exercise resources may present a partial solution. Knowledge of safe, affordable, or proximate locations for patients to engage in prescribed exercise presents a barrier to place-based exercise prescriptions.