Research

In the School of Health and Human Performance, faculty and post-graduate fellows - as well as our own graduate students - are actively engaged in diverse research projects.

Our faculty members have academic backgrounds from various disciplines: health education/promotion, sociology, psychology, leisure, occupational therapy/social work, kinesiology, and management. Faculty bring with them a flexibility and receptiveness to thinking in new ways, especially in response to changes in the field and discipline.

Faculty in Health Promotion also have direct connections to research partnerships with Centre for Excellence in Health Promotion and the Atlantic Centre for Excellence in Women’s Health, as well as direct links to research needs in a wide variety of community-based organizations.

Faculty research topics in Health Promotion

• HIV/AIDs (Numer)
  
• Aboriginal health (Martin)
  
• sexuality and reproductive health (Numer)
  
• resilience and change in rural and coastal communities (Jackson, Martin)
  
• health policy (Numer)
  
• community health promotion/education strategies (Kirk)

Faculty research topics in Kinesiology

• cardiac cellular function (Grandy)
• exercise/physical activity and chronic disease (Grandy, Stone)
  
• exercise testing to assess cardio function in aged populations (Kimmerly, Grandy)
  
• physical activity and cancer (Keats, Stone)
• physical activity and diabetes (Welch)
  
• health behaviour change (Dithurbide, Keats)
  
• web-based technologies to support physical activity behaviours (Keats, Stone)
  
• interventions to promote physical activity (Dithurbide, Keats, Stone, Welch)
  
• the effect of the autonomic nervous system on cardiac and vascular function (Kimmerly)
  
• brain morphology and cardiovascular disease (Kimmerly)
  
• clinical and occupational biomechanics (Ladouceur)
  
• physical ergonomics (Frayne)
• the built environment and physical activity (Keats, Stone)
  
• physical activity measurement (Stone)
  
• adaptation of bone to physical activity (Welch)
  
• bone measurement techniques (Welch)
  
• motor learning (Westwood, Ladouceur, Neyedli)
  
• vision and motor control (Westwood)
  
• movement disorders (Westwood, Neyedli)
• cognitive influences (e.g., decision making and attention) on motor control (Neyedli)
  
• cognitive ergonomics (Neyedli)

Faculty research topics in Leisure Studies

• volunteering, civic engagement and community service (Gallant)
  
• inclusion of marginalized populations in community (Hamilton-Hinch)
  
• community development and the not-for-profit sector (Gallant, Hamilton-Hinch)
  
• racism violence and health (Hamilton-Hinch)
  
• diversity and institutional change (Hamilton-Hinch, Gallant)
  
• parenting practices and adolescent leisure (Rehman)
  
• leisure and home-based business owners (Rehman)
  
• Internet access and use, and its effects on learning and leisure (Rehman)
  
• access to recreation in Nova Scotia (Rehman, Hutchinson, Hamilton-Hinch)
  
• social gerontology (Hamilton-Hinch)
  
• leisure and aging (Hutchinson)