The present study aimed to investigate counseling content provided by healthcare professionals for primary healthcare users, as well as users' difficulties in adhering to the counseling, through a cross-sectional study design. Interviews were conducted with 499 users at a primary healthcare unit, and 59.3% of them said that counseling had been provided, especially by physicians (93.6%), and it was based on healthy nutrition and physical activity practice (48.9%). Counseling was more frequently to users with greater numbers of morbid conditions (p=0.001). The main factors that made adherence difficult for users were lack of time (27.5%) and the need to change habits (23%). It was identified that counseling is still at initial stage within primary care, and there is a need for healthcare professionals, especially the nurse of the family health team to be more proactive in this process, focusing mainly on health promotion.
Counseling; Health promotion; Primary health care
