Life-course health impact and cost-effectiveness of childhood physical activity interventions
As developed countries transition into a ‘fifth phase’ of epidemiological concern, with consequential increase in risk factors for non-communicable disease incidence, the importance of promoting adequate lifelong physical activity levels is ever more important. As the seeds of physical activity behaviour are sown in childhood, many policies and interventions have sought to increase children’s participation.
In the absence of adequate longitudinal data, modelling is a viable method of assessing the health consequences of physical activity levels. Using baseline data from the Health Survey for England, Jamie’s DPhil project seeks to model the consequences of different levels of childhood physical activity on non-communicable disease outcomes across the lifespan. In particular, this project assesses the effectiveness of specific childhood intervention strategies, including schools or community intervention, and prevention or treatment policy.
Jamie is part-funded by the University of Chichester’s staff development programme, where he works as a Senior Lecturer. His DPhil project is supervised by Dr Peter Scarborough and Associate Professor Charlie Foster.