Dr Barbara Jefferis leads the UCL Physical Activity Research Group (PARG) which works very closely with the ISEH(1) bringing together researchers from different disciplines across UCL with shared interest in physical activity work.
Her key interests are in studying how physical activity impacts on health at the population-level and especially for healthy ageing.
She has studied how much physical activity is needed in later life to reduce the risks of important conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. She also studies how physical activity can prevent the onset of disability, frailty and falls, all of which are important for wellbeing and good quality of life in older age.
Given that older adults are the most rapidly increasing segment of the population and have very low activity levels, there is great potential for health benefits from increasing physical activity levels in this age group. She has been involved in trials aiming to increase activity levels or to use physical activity as medicine in specific conditions. Barbara uses new accelerometer technology to study usual levels of physical activity in large representative studies of the general population. Crucially, these small activity monitors, worn around the waist, can accurately measure physical activity levels minute by minute.
This helps us to understand the patterns and amount of physical activity and of sedentary that older people manage in their daily lives, and in turn how much, or little activity is needed for optimal healthy ageing.
Barbara graduated in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, did a Masters in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and then moved to UCL in 1999 where she completed a PhD in Epidemiology focusing on patterns of health behaviours from childhood into midlife and how they impact on risk of diabetes. She has held both MRC and NIHR Fellowships and is now Lecturer in Physical Activity Epidemiology at UCL Department of Primary Care and Population Health.
(1) One of the projects that the ISEH and PARG are working together on is providing the monitoring and evaluation for the Camden Active Spaces Project.