Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Research Unit
The Physical Activity and Epidemiology Research Group
Team
leader: Prof. Vicki Lambert
The research of this group
focuses on aspects of the health consequences of physical activity, and other
significant metabolic exposures. The research includes the work of Professor
Lambert who is studying the effects of foetal malnutrition on subsequent health.
This is a collaborative study with the Departments of Medicine and Paediatrics,
and the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and is independently funded
by the Nestle Foundation. More recently, the research focus of this group
has extended to include studies examining obesity in South African women and
their children. Genetic, physiological, as well and socio-cultural and attitudinal
factors determinants of obesity are being investigated. Moreover, differences
in the manifestation of the metabolic syndrome with obesity are being studied
in black and white South African women. Many of the projects within this research
group benefit from an active collaboration with the Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle
Unit of the Medical Research Council of South Africa.
Selected research
areas:
- Menstrual dysfunction
and bone mineral density in Two Oceans ultramarathon runners
- Assessment of physical
activity for public health purposes (as part of an international, collaborative
investigation on the validity and reliability of the International Physical
Activity Questionnaire, IPAQ, and the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire,
GPAQ);
- Effectiveness of community-based,
low-intensity exercise intervention in older adults from previously disadvantaged
communities;
- Determinants of frailty
(physical, functional, demographic and nutritional) in older, black South
African adults;
- Bone health and physical
activity, including determinants of bone mineral density in older adults,
adult women and in young pre-adolescent schoolgirls (reflecting collaborations
with the Department of Community Health, and the Sloan Epidemiology Unit,
Department of Public Health, Boston University, John’s Hopkins School
of Nursing and the Fogarty International Research Collaboration and training
of students in the Minority International Research Training programme);
- Determinants of obesity
in South African schoolchildren;
- Foetal origins of
chronic disease, in particular the effect of an adverse intra-uterine environment
and low birthweight on subsequent risks for the development of hypertension,
diabetes and hypercholesterolaemia, and the mechanisms therefore
- The fitness levels
of South African Primary School children - the effects of socio-economic
status
- The effects of birth-weight,
current anthropometrical & socio-demographic factors on motor proficiency
& motor development in 8 year old South African school children
- Adipose tissue distribution
and metabolism explain the obesity-related co morbidities in black South
African women
- Dietary phenotypes:
Differences in energy and substrate metabolism and appetite.
- Genotype and phenotype
interactions in lean and obese South African women.
- Validation of questionnaires
examining inter-ethic differences in socio-cultural and attitudinal factors
associated with obesity in South African women and their daughters.
- Inter-ethic differences
in adiposity and energy balance may partly be explained by socio-cultural
and familial factors in South African women and their daughters.
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