OBJECTIVES: First, estimate the prevalence of diet/nutrition (DN) and exercise counseling (EC) in patients with dyslipidemia during ambulatory care visits in the United States. Secondly, compare the likelihood of receiving DN or EC across various patient and physician characteristics. METHODS: The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) data for 2000 and 2001 were merged to obtain cross-sectional nationwide estimates of DN and EC. Dyslipidemia patients were identified by ICD-9 codes (272.xx). Sampling weights were provided by the NAMCS and logistic regressions were used. RESULTS: A total of 29.6 million (2-year average) visits in the U.S. had a diagnosis of dyslipidemia (n = 1620). Provision of DN was greater than EC (37% and 25%, respectively). Men were statistically significantly more likely to receive DN and EC than women, after adjusting for race and age (OR = 1.2 and 1.3, respectively). After adjusting for race and gender, subjects aged 50-64 years were more likely to receive DN than any other age group and subjects aged 30-49 were more likely to receive EC than any other age group. Compared to whites, blacks were 30% and 10% more likely to receive DN and EC, respectively, after adjusting for age and gender. It was found that self-paying subjects were more likely to receive EC (OR = 1.2, p = 0.003) but less likely to receive DN (OR = 0.72, p = 0.0002) than subjects with private insurance. Physicians located in the West provided greater provisions of DN and EC when compared to physicians located in other parts of the United States (OR = 2.2 and 1.5, respectively). Compared to internists or cardiologists, family medicine physicians provided more DN and EC (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Over two years, provisions of DN and EC were relatively low. More efforts in providing these preventative measures are warranted.