Physical Activity Research Group
The Physical Activity Research Group aims to advance the science of physical activity and movement-related behaviours (e.g., sedentary behaviour, sleep, diet/nutrition, weight loss/maintenance). Specifically, research within the Physical Activity Research Group focuses on increasing the knowledge of individual, social, and environmental correlates of these health behaviours. It further develops, evaluates and implements innovative intervention strategies to improve health behaviours at an individual and population level, in healthy populations (e.g., across all ages, female athletes), populations with health conditions (e.g., people with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, dementia) and priority populations (e.g., people living in regional/rural/remote areas, people with a disability, people experiencing diseases of ageing).
A particular strength of the research group is the development, evaluation and implementation of digital health interventions using websites, mobile apps, activity trackers, chatbots, social media, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to improve health behaviours at population level at an acceptable cost. The Physical Activity Research Group regularly attracts highly competitive research funds (e.g., NHMRC, ARC, NHF) and houses the world-renowned 10,000 Steps program which has over 700,000 online members and has been implemented in over 25,000 organisations across Australia.
