Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Higher levels of physical activity are associated with better health outcomes. It remains unclear however which factors predict declines in physical activity and which factors should be leveraged to achieve the greatest increases in physical activity. Identifying these factors is necessary for the development of physical activity interventions that will facilitate individual and population-level reductions in non-communicable disease risk. The aim of my research will be to generate knowledge (e.g., identifying the environmental determinants of declines in physical activity) that will inform the development and evaluation of interventions that will promote increases (or prevent declines) in physical activity among older adults. My research will primarily use data collected as part of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk Study - a large prospective population-based observational cohort study. Adults (n= 25,639) were recruited between 1993 and 1998 from 35 outpatient clinics in Norfolk, England. Since then four additional follow-up assessments have been completed. Socio-demographic factors and variables identified a priori as important potential confounders/covariates (e.g., age, gender, education) were assessed using a standardized questionnaire. In the last two follow-up assessments (2004-2011; 2012-2016), physical activity was assessed for seven consecutive days using hip-worn accelerometers (ActiGraph GT1M/GT3X+) and characteristics of home neighbourhoods were assessed using a combination of self-reports and Geographic Information Systems. In the last assessment (2012-2016), Global Positioning Systems were used to track physical activity locations, which will allow for the estimation of the associations between environmental exposures and physical activity. Statistical models will be used to estimate the cross-sectional and prospective associations of physical activity with social and environmental factors and markers of cardiometabolic health. The knowledge that will be generated through my research will give clinicians and health agencies (e.g., the National Health Service and Health Canada) novel insights into how they can help improve the health of our aging populations.