The Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory was established in August 2007, and we are currently investing in establishing ourselves in the research community at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. We have three on-going collaborations on large-scale epidemiological investigations, including the Canadian Physical Activity Longitudinal Study (PALS), the Canadian Heart Health Surveys Follow-up Study, and the CAMBIO Research Network (Canada-Mexico Battling Childhood Obesity).  In addition, we continue to actively collaborate with researchers here and at the University of South Carolina on the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS), and the HERITAGE Family Study.

Physical Activity Longitudinal Study (PALS)

PALS is a cohort study of individuals aged 15 years and older who originally participated in the nationally representative 1981 Canada Fitness Survey and/or the 1988 Campbell’s Survey of Well-Being in Canada. Participants were traced and sent a follow-up self-administered questionnaire pertaining to a variety of health-related topics between 2002 and 2004. We are currently investigating the role of physical activity and obesity in the prevention of chronic disease in this cohort, which has now been followed for 20 years.

Canadian Heart Health Surveys Follow-up Study

The Canadian Heart Health Surveys Follow-up Study is a project that was initiated in 2004 with the purpose of developing a research program to study the impact of individual- and community-level factors on the relationships between obesity, other chronic disease risk factors, and mortality. The original Canadian Heart Health Surveys were conducted in Canada between 1986 and 1992, and comprises a cohort of approximately 28,000 people. This project aims to establish a longitudinal framework from the existing survey data by linking forward to the Canadian Mortality Database.

CAMBIO Research Network (Canada-Mexico Battling Childhood Obesity)

Funding for CAMBIO is provided through a grant from the Canadian International Development Research Center on behalf of the Global Health Research Initiative. The network promotes cooperation and knowledge transfer among educational institutions, government ministries, and non-governmental organizations, as well as other government, community-based, or industry-led groups whose focus is health, nutrition, physical activity, and the promotion of healthy communities. The overarching goal of CAMBIO is to address the problem of childhood obesity in Mexico, within the context of the nutrition transition. Our long-term aims are to increase research capacity and knowledge transfer, and to promote partnerships and collaborations. To achieve our goals, four key activities are being undertaken: developing and delivering an annual short course on obesity, developing a collaborative program of research, facilitating faculty and student exchanges, and building international partnerships and networking.

Our future directions include determining the public health burden of physical inactivity and obesity in the United States population, and their impact on life expectancy. We also plan to capitalize on existing data that have been collected at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center to establish a cohort of people we can follow over time to assess the development of risk factors and chronic disease.  

Funding

Research in this unit is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the International Development Research Center and the Pennington Medical Foundation.