Tessa Strain

Chancellor's Fellow

Biography

Background

Tessa is an epidemiologist with expertise in the measurement of physical activity in population surveys. She also researches the associations between physical activity and health outcomes using device-based measures of activity.

Tessa undertook her PhD at the University of Edinburgh (2014-2017) before moving to the MRC Epidemiology Unit as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. She was promoted to Senior Research Associate in 2022. Tessa returned to the University of Edinburgh in 2023 in a variety of short-term roles whilst undertaking consultancy work for the World Health Organization.Tessa has led a number of major projects resulting in publications in high-impact journals. These include:

  • the first prospective analysis of device measured activity and mortality risk using UK Biobank data, focussing on the importance of activity intensity
  • the application of the Prevented Fraction for the Population to global physical activity data to quantify deaths averted by current levels of activity
  • the largest nationally representative analysis of physical activity levels in the UK during the first COVID-19 lockdown
  • an investigation into the relative contributions of different domains of activity (work/household, travel, leisure) to 104 countries worldwide

Tessa also regularly contributes to policy discussions around the measurement of physical activity in the four UK home nations. She co-chaired a Chief Medical Officer appointed expert group on physical activity surveillance 2019-2021 and continues to work to implement the recommendations made.

More information about Tessa's research and publications can be found on the University's Research Explorer.

Visit Tessa's page on the Research Explorer

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