Video killed the radio star but can it also give people a new lease on life?
Published on 25 October, 2012
Video may have killed the radio star but can it also give people a new lease on life through physical activity? That's a question that a CQUniversity-based research team is determined to answer over the next three years, thanks to a national research grant* worth almost $700,000...
LINK to National grant backs CQUni's 'tailored video for physical activity' project OR Watch a video to get more active!
This funding will enable extension of a pilot study into the use of individually tailored video clips delivered via personal computers to boost physical activity levels.
Lead researcher Dr Corneel Vandelanotte says the team will work with a professional video company to script and produce a whole databank of video snippets.
Members of the public from throughout Australia will engage with a special website for three months. Once a week, they will be able to watch a short video with the specific ingredients and content most relevant for their individual circumstances.
To aid evaluation, researchers will mail out accelerometers at key times so there is hard data on physical activity levels to back up survey responses.
Dr Vandelanotte says the ultimate goal is behaviour change for increased physical activity and better public health.
"Early on we have found that people prefer the videos to be delivered to their computer rather than via hand-held devices and they are responding well to video-delivery, spending about twice as long interacting with the program, compared with text-delivery where people quickly skim and scan the text before moving on," he said.
* The prestigious grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council was awarded after a highly competitive process, proving the quality of public health research at CQUniversity.
Dr Vandelanotte's research team includes his colleague Dr Mitch Duncan, former CQUniversity professor Kerry Mummery (now at Canada's University of Alberta) and Professor Ronald Plotnikoff from the University of Newcastle.
Earlier this year, CQUniversity decided to build capacity in this project area by awarding 'post-doctoral researcher' internal funding of $300,000 over three years via the Research Advancement Award Scheme.
This recognition comes in the wake of Dr Vandelanotte's selection among Queensland's Young Tall Poppy Science Award Winners, towards the end of 2011.
Dr Vandelanotte's research is focused on finding effective and innovative methods to increase physical activity in large numbers of Australians at a low cost. He has designed and evaluated several innovative website-delivered physical activity interventions.
The researcher completed his PhD at Ghent University in Belgium in 2004, and moved to Australia in 2005. He's now based with the Centre for Physical Activity Studies at the Institute for Health and Social Science Research at CQUniversity.