April 2025
Illini Physical Activity Symposium
This year, the Illini Physical Activity Initiative held its first Physical Activity Symposium on April 18, 2025, to celebrate International Physical Activity Day. This event brought public health researchers together to discuss the importance of physical activity and allowed our Health and Kinesiology students to present their research findings on various topics related to physical activity.
The event began with a walk from the Illini Union to Huff Hall, followed by an introduction made by the Initiative and a welcome video from Dr. Pedro Hallal. Then, Dr. Susan Aguiñaga gave a keynote talk on her topic, “Cultivating Movement: Tailoring Interventions for Optimal Physical Activity Promotion.”
This was followed by poster presentations from the HK department students, showcasing their work.
- Oluwafemi Ayoola’s topic was on “Physical Activity Research Trends Across Age Groups in Nigeria; A Secondary Analysis of the GoPA! Data.”
- Deanivea Felix and Vishnu Mohandas presented “Post-COVID Symptoms and Physical Activity: Findings from the EPICOVID 2.0 Survey in Brazil.”
- Kaiyue Zhang’s research explored “A bibliometric analysis of three decades of physical activity and health research in China.”
December 2024
APE Culminating Event
The culminating event took place on December 16, 2024, where two members of our lab presented their projects through poster presentations, showcasing their contributions to the Applied Practice Experience.
- Mughil Thamizhendhi’s project focused on developing a comprehensive guide for a local physical education manual aimed at elementary school children, as well as designing a website for the lab group.
- Avni Patel’s project involved creating a series of engaging social media posts to promote the importance of physical activity and provide guidelines tailored to four different population groups. Additionally, she contributed to the development of the lab’s website.
October 2024
International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) Congress
From October 28 to 31st, lab members had the opportunity to participate in the 10th ISPAH Congress 2024 conference hosted in Paris, France, by the French Society of Public Health. The ISPAH Congress is the biggest platform dedicated to sharing updates on the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030. Hoping to achieve the global target goal of reducing physical inactivity by 15% by 2030, this Congress allows a space where collaboration between public health professionals, practitioners, and researchers can explore different methods of taking action.
This year’s conference theme was “Accelerating policy and practice to ensure physical activity for all,” by addressing inequalities in physical activity participation, strengthening partnerships for a unified approach, and delivering sustainable change locally, nationally, and globally.
This year, lab members were able to share their own research goals and ideas through poster presentations.
- Kaiyue Zhang presented her topic titled “A bibliometric analysis of three decades of physical activity and health research in China.”
- Otavio Leao’s poster presentation discussed “Patterns in screen time use among children aged 7 years.”
- Ashley Cathro was able to present her topic on “Assessing physical activity research, surveillance, and policy in Canada: GoPA!”