CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Although much has been written about the potential power of the association between physicians' personal health practices and those of their patients, objective studies of this relationship are lacking. We investigated this association using objectively measured health care indicators. ⋯ We found a consistent, positive relation between physicians' and patients' preventive health practices. Objectively establishing this healthy doctor-healthy patient relation should encourage prevention-oriented health care systems to better support and evaluate the effects on patients of improving the physical health of medical students and physicians.