Digital health

Our team are experts in developing digital health interventions that provide feedback to the public about their health and our research is exploring methods of objectively assessing physical activity and movement.

Technology has been revolutionising our society for centuries. The recent integration of digital health technology into modern life (e.g. smartphones and physical activity trackers) has led to an increased effort to apply these technologies to health improvement.

Our internationally renowned team of experts are employing cutting-edge, innovative methods to understand how to best utilise technology to increase physical activity and reduce time sedentary in the population. Our team is at the forefront of shaping how best to use these technologies within national health policy and practice.

Theme lead

James Sanders

Dr James Sanders

Lecturer in Digital Health

Research spotlights

Snacktivity™: developing the SnackApp

Global Physical Activity Dataset

2025

  • Daley AJ, Griffin RA, Sanders JP, Gokal K, Ives N, Skrybant M, Parretti HM, Edwardson CL, Biddle SJ, Jolly K, Greaves CJ. Snacktivity™ to promote physical activity in primary care, community health and public health settings: A feasibility randomised controlled trial. International journal of behavioral medicine, 2025. DOI: 10.1007/s12529-025-10352-3

2024

  • Maylor, BD, Rowlands AV, Daley AJ, Sanders PJ, Yates T, Edwardson CL. Grade Accelerometers to Assess Intervention Effectiveness and Commercial Wearables as a Self-Monitoring Tool: Are the Two Aligned on Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity? Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour 7, 2024. DOI: 10.1123/jmpb.2023-0056

  • Sanders JP, Daley AJ, Esliger DW, Roalfe AK, Colda A, Turner J, Hajdu S, Potter A, Humayun AM, Spiliotis I, Reckless I. Effectiveness of a digital health and financial incentive intervention to promote physical activity in patients with type 2 diabetes: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial with a nested qualitative study—ACTIVATE trial. Trials, 2024. DOI: 10.1186/s13063-024-08513-y

2023

  • Ahmadi MN, Hamer M, Gill JMR, Murphy M, Sanders JP, Doherty A, Stamatakis E. Brief bouts of device-measured intermittent lifestyle physical activity and its association with major adverse cardiovascular events and mortality in people who do not exercise: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health, 2023. DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00183-4

  • Thomas JJC, Daley AJ, Esliger DW, Kettle VE, Coombe A, Stamatakis E, Sanders JP. Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity Data Sets (Global Physical Activity Data Set Catalogue) That Include Markers of Cardiometabolic Health: Systematic Scoping Review. J Med Internet Res, 2023. DOI: 10.2196/45599

  • Kingsnorth AP, Moltchanova E, Thomas JJC, Whelan ME, Orme MW, Esliger DW, Hobbs M. Interchangeability of Research and Commercial Wearable Device Data for Assessing Associations With Cardiometabolic Risk Markers. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, 2023. DOI: 10.1123/jmpb.2022-0050

  • Sanders JP, Gokal K, Thomas JJC, Rawstorn JC, Sherar LB, Maddison R, Greaves CJ, Esliger D, Daley AJ and Snacktivity Investigators. Development of a Mobile Health SnacktivityTM App to Promote Physical Activity in Inactive Adults (SnackApp): Intervention Mapping and User Testing Study. JMIR Formative Research, 2023. DOI: 10.2196/41114

Digital apps

Wearable technology

  • Holly Health Prevent: JITAI Project Developing Precision Health Behaviour Change Support and Disease Prevention - £447,000. Led by James Sanders.

  • ACTIVATE: testing the effectiveness of the Milton Keynes Activity Rewards Programme - £1.34M. Led by James Sanders.

  • Snacktivity™ to promote physical activity. Funded by NIHR. Led by Amanda Daley.

  • The health benefits of Snacktivity™. Led by Jonah Thomas.

  • Measuring Engagement with mHealth tools: A systematic review of methodologies. Led by James Sanders.

  • ADAPTIVE: Context-aware ADAptive Physical acTivity interVEntions using model predictive control. Led by James Sanders.