Visiting Scientist

Physical Activity Epidemiology

Current work and interests

Tessa joined the MRC Epidemiology Unit in January 2018 as an MRC post-doctoral fellow with the Physical Activity Epidemiology programme.

Her current research covers descriptive epidemiology and measurement methods of nationally representative physical activity surveys, the associations between physical activity and health, and the epidemiological methods used to quantify them. During her post-doc, she led research investigating the roles of activity volume and intensity for mortality risk that was published in Nature Medicine.

She has been part of three Expert Groups on physical activity appointed by the UK Chief Medical Officers, including co-chairing the Expert Group on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Surveillance in the UK. She is regularly consulted on the measurement of physical activity in the UK national surveys by governments and survey companies.

Background and experience

Tessa has a background in national survey research, having worked at NatCen Social Research and then undertaken a PhD using Scottish Health Survey data at the University of Edinburgh.

Publications

• MRC Epidemiology Unit publications on Publications Database

Selected publications

• Strain T, Wijndaele K, Dempsey PC, Sharp SJ, Pearce M, Jeon J, Lindsay T, Wareham N, Brage S. (2020) Wearable device measured physical activity and future health risk. Nature Medicine, 26, 1385–1391 doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-1012-3
• Strain T, Brage S, Sharp SJ, Richards J, Tainio M, Ding D, Benichou J, Kelly P. (2020) How many deaths have been averted due to current physical activity levels? Using the ‘Prevented Fraction for the Population’ to make the positive case for physical activity. Lancet Global Health 8(7):E920-930, doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30211-4
• Strain T, Wijndaele K, Sharp SJ, Dempsey PC, Wareham N, Brage S. (2019). Impact of follow-up time and analytical approaches to account for reverse causality on the association between physical activity and health outcomes in UK Biobank. International Journal of Epidemiology doi: 10.1093/ije/dyz212
• Strain T, Wijndaele K, Garcia L, Guthold R, Cowan M, Brage S, Bull F. (2020) Levels of domain-specific physical activity at work, in the household, for travel and for leisure among 327,789 adults from 104 countries. British Journal of Sports Medicine, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102601
• Strain T, Milton K, Dall P, Standage M, Mutrie N. (2019) How are we measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the four home nations of the UK? A narrative review of current surveillance measures and future directions. British Journal of Sports Medicine doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-100355
• Strain T, Wijndaele K, Brage S. (2019) Physical Activity Surveillance Through Smartphone Apps and Wearable Trackers: Examining the UK Potential for Nationally Representative Sampling. Journal of Medical Internet Research Mhealth Uhealth 29:7(1):e11898