Notes: Key questions are indicated in bold, possible prompts are given in parentheses. The order/wording of questions and the interviewer's choice of which prompts to use is expected to vary from interview to interview depending on how information flows from the individual study participant.

Preamble: ‘I would like to talk to you about your opinions on and experiences of assessing physical activity in general practice.’

In general, what priority would you give to assessing patients' level of physical activity?

(On a scale of 1 to 10 from least to most important, can you rate the importance you place on assessing physical activity levels? How important is it relative to assessing for example, smoking status, diet, alcohol?)

How important do you think physical activity is in maintaining people's health/preventing disease?

(If appropriate — what diseases do you think physical activity may have a role in preventing?)

Has physical activity a role in managing chronic diseases?

(If yes, what role does physical activity have? If no, explore why not.)

Is assessing patients' physical activity levels something that you regularly do?

(Why/why not? Ask interviewee to expand and explain.)

How do you decide whether or not to assess a particular patient's physical activity levels?

(Explore patient characteristics; ask for an example where the interviewee recently did assess [or wanted to assess] a patient's physical activity levels, judgments about risk of disease. What disease? Is there any group of patients in whom you are more likely to assess physical activity? How do you raise the issue of physical activity with your patients?)

How would you determine a patient's physical activity levels?

(Prompts: can you give me examples of the questions you would ask? When assessing someone's physical activity, what sort of things do you aim to establish?)

Have you encountered any problems or barriers when you try to assess your patients' physical activity?

(If so, please describe them; what have you tried to overcome these problems; what worked and what didn't?)

Do you currently make physical activity recommendations to your patients?/Would you give patients advice to increase their physical activity?

(If appropriate, how often, under what circumstances, can you describe if/how you check whether they are following your advice? What recommendations do you make? If no, why not? Does the patient's current physical activity level influence the recommendations you make?)

Are there other health professionals (other GPs, nurses, other?) in your practice involved in physical activity assessment?

If yes, who are they? Please tell me about their role. If no, do you think there are possible ways for other staff in your practice to become involved?

Do you have any systems in place for physical activity assessment?

(If, yes, please describe. Examples: Medical Director, Lifescripts, notes on file, other tools.)

What do you understand the current recommendations for levels of physical activity to be for the general community?

Where would you go to find information about physical activity if you needed it?

(are you aware of Lifescripts, red book insert, SNAP, National Physical Activity guidelines, tools on Medical Director, other: have you used any of same?)

Do you have any comments regarding any of the resources or tools you use?

(Prompts if needed: are they useful or not, easy to use? Suggestions to make them easier to use; anyone else in practice using them besides GPs. Make specific enquiry re Lifescripts if appropriate)

Basic demographic data: age, sex, practice location (urban versus rural), number of sessions usually worked per week.

In what age range do you fall: <35; 35–<45; 45–<55; >55 years old?

Male/female by observation

Is your usual general practice located in an urban or a rural area?

How many sessions do you usually work in general practice each week?

Is there anything further you would like to tell me about any of the things we've talked about today?