Dr JANE HISLOP
LECTURER, PHYSIOTHERAPY
I’m Dr Jane Hislop, I’m a Physiotherapy Lecturer who has a research
interest in measurement of physical activity. When I started my part-time
PhD research I was interested in the factors which were contributing to
the childhood obesity epidemic and I came across Professor John Reilly’s
research in the area of physical activity of preschool children.
This research questioned the
assumption that young children were
sufficiently active for health and
highlighted that there were several
questions regarding how we accurately
measure physical activity behaviour in
this population. My research therefore
stemmed from an interest to try and
address these questions and propose a
protocol for accurately measuring the
physical activity behaviour of
young children at a population level,
using accelerometers.
This research is important for understanding
physical activity behaviour of young children. In
addition, it is only through accurate quantifcation of
physical activity behaviour that the effectiveness of
interventions to change physical activity behaviour
can be determined.
My PhD supervisor Professor John Reilly was
an inspiration, with his research into childhood
obesity and the development of physical activity
behaviour in children. John’s research has focused
on interventions for the prevention of child and
adolescent obesity and the consequences of obesity
and low levels of physical activity in children and
adolescents globally. This research highlighted that
from an early age children were at risk of health
problems as a consequence of low levels of physical
activity and high levels of sedentary behaviour.
‘When I started my
part-time PhD research
I was interested in the factors
which were contributing
to the childhood
obesity epidemic.’
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