Physical activity for healthMeasurement

New technology provides opportunities to accurately measure physical activity 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

Examples of our work on this area include:

• Improving our measurement of obesity- beyond the BMI Prof John Reilly
• Objective measurement of the 24-hour movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep) in the under 5s, children and adolescents- Dr Xanne Janssen
• Objective measurement of sedentary behaviour in hospitalised older patients- Dr Alexandra Mavroeidi
• Pragmatic evaluation of school, family and community-based interventions - Dr. D Harrington