Science and Research

The academic staff of the Faculty of Physical Culture do scientific research in accordance with the focus of the field of kinantropology. There are currently two priority areas of research identified by the Faculty – a) monitoring of physical activity and b) motor activity. The first area includes research topics such as physical activity and inactivity (sedentary behaviour), physical activity in the environmental context, physical activity and social aspects, active transport and physical fitness. The area of motor activity includes topics such as movement and its external manifestations (biomechanics), structure and movement of the human body (somatodiagnosis), movement and functions of the human body (exercise physiology) and motion control and motor learning. These topics are further reflected in areas such as sports training, rehabilitation and adapted physical activities. The research activity of the faculty is characterized by interdisciplinary cooperation. Interdisciplinarity is also encouraged by the membership in the HEPA Europe Network, which addresses the above topics in so-called "working groups" with a focus on public health.

Faculty of Physical Culture is engaged in many international and national grants and research projects. The most principal international research project at the Faculty are IPEN a HBSC.

IPEN Adolescent
| International Study of Built Environments and Physical Activity

Aims

The aim of this research is to use comparable methods in at least 9 diverse countries to obtain accurate estimates of how strongly built environments are related to physical activity and weight, so environmental and policy interventions can by suggested.

Main aims are:

• to estimate strengths of association between objective GIS-based measures of the community environment with accelerometer-measured PA and sedentary time in adolescents,
• to estimate strengths of association between perceived measures of the community environment (IPEN Adolescent survey) with self-reported walking/cycling to/from school and participation in youth sports and activity classes,
• to estimate strengths of association between objective and perceived environment measures with overweight/obesity in adolescents (defined by international criteria).

Realization

IPEN Adolescent project is a coordinated study of built environments and PA, sedentary behavior, and obesity using common methods and based on completed TEAN study of adolescents in US and the IPEN Adult study coordinated by IPEN research team. At least 4680 adolescents aged 12–18 years, from at least 9 countries will participate. In each country, a minimum of 300 adolescents will be recruited from neighborhoods selected to vary in walkability and socioeconomic status. All countries in IPEN Adolescent will collect objective measures of PA and sedentary time by accelerometry. Validated and systematically adapted surveys will assess built and social environment attributes, psychosocial and demographic variables, and additional outcomes (active transport to school, participation in organized sports and activity classes). GIS-derived measures of walkability (community designs that support walking to destinations), playability (access to recreation facilities), and pedestrian accessibility (sidewalks, transit, bars to walking) will be analyzed separately and combined into a “physical activity-friendliness” index. Analyses will adjust for multi-level clustering and individual demographics.

HBSC
| International Research Study of Health Behavior in School-Aged Children

Aims

HBSC focuses on understanding young people's health in their social context – where they live, at school, with family and friends. Researchers in the HBSC network are interested in understanding how these factors, individually and together, influence young people's health as they move from childhood into young adulthood. The aim of the project in 2010 was to continue participation in the collaborative study since 1994, gaining new knowledge about the behavior of school-aged children and link new data with existing reports from the years 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, which were taken on a representative set of 11, 13 and 15 aged children in the Czech Republic.

Realization

For all participating countries, a standardized research protocol providing a theoretical framework for the research topics, data collection and analysis procedures is developed. The HBSC Research Network members collaborate on the production of this international Research Protocol for each four-yearly survey. HBSC is a school-based study. Data are collected through self-completion standardized questionnaires administered in the classroom, responded by 11, 13, and 15 years old children. The recommended sample size for each of the free age groups is approximately 1,500 students. The core questions provide information on: demographic factors (e. g., age and state of maturation); social background (e. g., family structure and socio-economic status); social context (e. g., family, peer culture, school environment); health outcomes (e. g., self-rated health, injuries, overweight and obesity); health behaviours (e. g., eating and dieting, physical activity and weight
reduction behaviour); and risk behaviours (e. g., smoking, alcohol use, cannabis use, sexual behaviour, bullying). The research takes place repeatedly every four years which allows to obtain relevant, comparable data suitable for policy and action, particularly in the field of public health.

List of all research projects and grants at Palacký University

• ISSN 1211-6521 (print), ISSN 1803-8360 (on-line)
• Indexing: CrossRef, Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO, Google Scholar
• Journal is available only in Czech or Slovak language with English abstracts

• ISSN 1804-4220 (on-line)
• Indexing: EBSCO
• Journal is available only in Czech language