Timothy Walker
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Public Health & Epidemiology
Physical inactivity contributes to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, yet only 42% of children meet physical activity guidelines. National recommendations call on schools to use two proven approaches.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Education Research
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
physical activity
childhood physical inactivity
physically active breaks
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2031
What they work on
- Optimize a multifaceted implementation strategy for physically active breaks and lessons in elementary schools using Implementation Mapping and user-centered design approaches.
- Evaluate whether the strategy improves teachers' implementation fidelity for physically active breaks and lessons, using a Type 3 hybrid design and Bayesian statistical methods.
- Assess the sustainability of physically active breaks and lessons after school support ends, using mixed methods to identify the factors that help or hinder continued use.
More about the research
Physically active breaks are short bursts of movement between lessons. Physically active lessons build movement into academic teaching. Teachers and schools often struggle to adopt these approaches and keep them going, especially in under-resourced communities. This project studies how to help schools put these approaches into practice and sustain them.
Why it matters
Most children do not get enough physical activity, raising their risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease. A strategy that helps elementary school teachers, including those in under-resourced schools, adopt and keep using active breaks and lessons could raise children's activity levels across many schools. It may also support classroom behavior and learning.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Elva M Arredondo
San Diego State University, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Test whether the Conmigo mother-daughter program increases moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in girls aged 8–11, using a cluster randomized trial in 18 schools with accelerometer measurements over 15 months.
Melissa Goulding
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Refine and co-develop BP-Link, a pediatric clinic program for follow-up blood pressure screening, by working with clinic providers, staff and parents through stakeholder-engaged implementation mapping.
Lauren Osborne
Columbia University, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether the doula-delivered LHMoms program lowers postpartum depression, improves cardiovascular health and raises quality of life compared with an attention control, in a randomized trial of 450 patients at three New York City hospital sites.
The school
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: 25 labs on PI Pages, $419M a year on research, 340 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
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