New technology provides opportunities to accurately measure physical activity, physical fitness, and sedentary behaviour. Improved measurement is needed to:
- assess the scale of the problem of low physical activity
- understand the health effects of physical activity
- evaluate the effect of interventions to more physical activity and less sedentary behaviour
- understand secular trends in physical fitness
- evaluate the effects of interventions intended to improve physical fitness
Examples of our work on this area include:
- Objective measurement of the 24-hour movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep) in the under 5s, children and adolescents - Professor John Reilly
- Integration of objective measurement of behaviour (e.g. sedentary behaviour) and health outcomes (e.g. glucose) - Dr Alison Kirk, Dr Katy Weston, Dr Fiona Muirhead
- Pragmatic evaluation of school, family and community-based interventions - Dr. Deirdre Harrington
- Physical fitness assessment, monitoring and surveillance in children and adolescents - Dr Katy Weston, Professor John Reilly
