Emma Adams
Research Associate (British Heart Foundation Centre for Physical Activity and Health)
Contact details
Room: CC.1.20
Phone: +44 (0)1509 223258
Fax: +44 (0)1509 226301
Email: E.J.Adams@lboro.ac.uk
Background
Emma has been a Research Associate in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences since 2004. Her qualifications include a MSc in Physical Activity and Health from Loughborough University (2004) and a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Nottingham University (1996). Prior to joining Loughborough University, Emma worked in clinical research in the Pharmaceutical Industry as Project Manager for a number of multi-national, multi-centre clinical trials mainly in the field of cardiovascular medicine.
During her Masters course Emma completed a thesis entitled Physical Activity Intervention Using Pedometers in Adults Employed in Sedentary Occupations which led to an interest in workplace health and employment as Research Associate for the national evaluation of the Well@Work: promoting active and healthy workplaces project. This was a four year project which aimed to improve the health of employees by increasing physical activity, promoting healthy eating, reducing smoking and promoting mental health and well-being and was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design and mixed methods approach.
Subsequent to this Emma has developed a strong interest in active travel behaviour, in particular relating to walking as a mode of transport for increasing physical activity levels, improving health and promoting sustainable travel. Emma is currently evaluating a number of projects which aim to increase levels of walking and cycling for transport.
Research Interests
Emma's research interests are in the area of physical activity and health and include: walking for transport (active travel); built environment and walking; physical activity interventions; objective measurement of physical activity; health promotion in the workplace; workplace environment and physical activity; evaluation of health promotion programmes.
Current projects
Emma is the Principal Investigator for the evaluation of Fitter for Walking, Step Up and Walking Works (January 2009 to December 2011) which is funded by Living Streets. She is also working as a Research Associate on work package 2 of the iConnect (Impact of COnstructing Non-motorised Networks and Evaluating Changes in Travel) project, an EPSRC funded project, and is involved in developing the evaluation framework and measurement tools.
A cross-disciplinary active travel research group has been established at the University of which Emma is an active member. Emma is also the lead contact at Loughborough University for the International Universities Walking Project (a collaboration of universities led by University of Queensland, Australia) and she is working with a team at Loughborough to promote walking to, from and across University campus.
Emma is working towards a PhD researching walking as a mode of transport and the impact of the built environment on walking.
Selected recent research projects and sources of funding
E Adams, F Bull (Jan 2009 to December 2011) Evaluation of Fitter for Walking, Step Up and Walking Works (Living Streets, £162,000)
E Adams (June 2008 to February 2009) Evaluation of the Eastern and Coastal Kent HealthWalks programme (Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust, £21,125)
E Adams, F Bull (July to September 2008) Independent appraisal of the Active Travel Consortium Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (Sustrans, £10,000) (July to September 2008)
F Bull, E Adams (March to April 2006) Development of a workplace health evaluation toolkit (Sport England, £16,245)
Selected presentations
Adams, E.J. & Bull, F.C. Evaluation of Well@Work - a national workplace health initiative in the UK: baseline employee physical activity levels. The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences Conference, Wolverhampton, UK, 2006.
Adams, E.J., Bull, F.C., & Hooper, P.L. Assessing programme implementation: a case study of the Well@Work process evaluation. 19th IUHPE World Conference on Health Education and Health Promotion, Vancouver, Canada, 2007.
Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L., & Bull, F.C. Evaluation of Well@Work - a national workplace health initiative in the UK. International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 2008.
Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L., & Bull, F.C. Changing the workplace environment to support healthy lifestyle choices: Successes and challenges from the Well@Work project in England. International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 2008. (Poster)
Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L., & Bull, F.C. Evaluation of Well@Work - a national workplace health initiative in the UK. Population Health Congress, Brisbane, Australia, July 2008.
Adams, E.J. & Bull, F.C. Appraisal of the Travel Actively Portfolio Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. HEPA Europe Annual Conference,Glasgow, UK, September 2008.
Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L., & Bull, F.C. Evaluation of Well@Work - a national workplace health initiative in the UK. Symposium - Assessing the impact of workplace programmes: a global perspective. International Society for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity Annual Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2009
Selected publications
Bull, F.C., Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L. (2008) Well@Work: Promoting Active and Healthy Workplaces Final Evaluation Report. School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.
Bull, F.C., Adams, E.J., Hooper, P.L., Jones, C.A. (2008) Well@Work: A summary report and calls to action. British Heart Foundation. London