Physical Activity and Health Research

The focus of Physical Activity and Health Research is a multi-faceted applied approach to improving our understanding of how physical activity and related behaviors affect a variety of health outcomes in healthy and clinical populations. The faculty in this area at UMass Amherst span interests in using wearable technologies to better assess movement and physical behaviors in people (and animal companions), applying those assessments across the lifespan, and how promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary time influence health.

Research Labs

Directed by Dr. Sofiya Alhassan, the Pediatric Physical Activity Laboratory conducts community-based physical activity interventions for the prevention of pediatric obesity and related co-morbidities, with a concentration on low socioeconomic status, ethnic-minority populations.

The EpiTech Activity Lab, led by Dr. Amanda Paluch, conducts research that combines physical activity epidemiology and technology to advance the monitoring and promotion of active lifestyles.

Dr. Katie Potter directs the Behavioral Medicine Lab where she and her team design and test interventions that increase physical activity and improve psychosocial well-being in sustainable ways. The current focus of the lab is leveraging the human-animal bond to achieve these goals.

The Physical Activity and Health Lab, directed by Dr. John Sirard, seeks to advance the field of physical activity assessment by using wearable technologies, understand social and environmental factors that influence physical activity, and test interventions to promote physical activity.

Under the leadership of Dr. Christine St. Laurent, the Moove and Snooze Lab explores the science of “sitting less, moving more, sleeping well” (I.e., the interactive influences of 24-hour movement behaviors) on physical, social-emotional, and cognitive health during the developmental years.