Many advances have increased opportunities for family physicians to help their patients. Of the literally hundreds of reported studies that might influence a family physician's practice, areas with important new information include the preventive use of exercise, prevention of disease in children, and prevention of domestic violence and heart disease. The importance of the family physician's role has also been verified in recent research.

Regular, vigorous exercise was shown to be associated with a lower risk of development of non—insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in male physicians aged 40 to 84 years (mean age, 53 years),1 and this finding probably could be generalized to other patient populations. The risk was shown to be dose dependent, with relative risks ranging from 1.0 for those who exercised once a week to 0.58 for those who exercised five or more times weekly. An even stronger preventive effect was shown for exercise in the rate.