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How active are children and older people?

Press release issued: 7 March 2006

The physical activity of children and older people in Bristol will be studied by Bristol University’s Department of Exercise and Health Sciences thanks to an award of £400,000 by the National Prevention Research Initiative (NRPI).

The physical activity of children and older people in Bristol will be studied by Bristol University’s Department of Exercise and Health Sciences thanks to an award of £400,000 by the National Prevention Research Initiative (NRPI).

The awards are two of 26 new research projects announced by the NPRI aimed at preventing cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  The newly funded studies have direct relevance on influencing health behaviours, with Bristol’s research projects encouraging physical activity.

Profiles of physical activity in older adults: project OPAL (older people and active living) is a two-year project and the first of its kind in the UK. Researchers, led by Ken Fox, Professor of Exercise and Health Sciences, will establish the influence of neighbourhood factors on physical activity profiles of 250 older adults in Bristol.  

Dr Ashley Cooper, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, will head-up the second project, Environmental determinants of physical activity and obesity in adolescents.  This three-year project will map where physical activity takes place in the urban environment of 1,000 Bristol youngsters from primary to secondary school age.    

Both projects will be based in a number of settings such as schools, neighbourhoods and homes.

Professor Ken Fox, commenting on the research awards, said: “Both projects extend the department’s work into the study of environmental factors through new technologies such as accelerometry, global positioning sensing and digital geographical information systems.

“This is innovative multidisciplinary research and we are all really pleased the projects were selected for funding from the 250 submitted proposals.”

The National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI) is a new multi-disciplinary national initiative established, supported by the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council and several charitable trusts, in recognition that disease prevention is a major research priority which must be informed by evidence of effective and cost-effective risk reduction and behaviour intervention.

 

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