PhD: Stair climbing interventions to target obesity

This project uses prompts in the environment to increase the accumulation of stair climbing as a part of daily living. Although the behaviour itself may appear trivial, an 80kg man climbing the stairs in his home 10 extra times a day, would accumulate energy expenditure equivalent to 3lbs of fat within a year. These interventions have produced greater effects in overweight participants of a worksite intervention (Eves, Webb & Mutrie, 2006), an effect recently confirmed in station (Lewis & Eves, 2011). Only the overweight responded to a calorific expenditure message, a unique finding in public health. Calorific expenditure via stair climbing appears an achievable and attractive physical activity for overweight individuals. We have developed a new approach to prompting in the environment and the project will continue this innovative and effective line of research.

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Funding Notes

This project can be self-funding and I am willing to explore alternative funding options for the right candidate. The university has a number of schemes that apply to candidates with 1st Class degrees.

A familiarity with social psychology, social cognition research and behavioural interventions would be advantageous but is not essential, as training will be given.