BU Research Blog

For the past few years, Jeff Bagust (BU Visiting Researcher and Emeritus Professor at AECC) and I have been involved in the Australian LOOK project. This is a multidisciplinary study that involves the collaboration of scientists (including cardiologists, physiologists, psychologists… and a whole load more “ists”) from all over the world. It is a longitudinal study following a group of approximately 850 school children as they grow into adults and throughout their lives. The aim of the study is to investigate whether the type of physical education you are exposed to in childhood has an effect on your quality of life… throughout your life! So, schools have been randomised into either continuing their normal physical education curriculum or following an externally provided, alternative programme. Just some of the areas that are being investigated include: bone health, insulin resistance, cardiovascular health, body image and academic performance.

The study started in 2005 when the children were 8 and so far two sets of follow-up tests have been performed. In 2013, the next phase of the project will begin as the children are now 15 and at secondary school.

For our part, Jeff and I have been investigating the development of perception of vertical in these children. While the intervention does not seem to have an effect on this, it has provided us with lots of information about how perception of vertical develops. The article we have written based on this work has just been published in the journal PLoSOne thanks to the BU Open Access Publication Fund. The new phase of the LOOK project will be very exciting for us as we have found that as the children are getting older, their perception of vertical is getting more and more like that seen in adults (interestingly, we have also found that as people move into old age their perception of vertical starts to resemble the amount of variation found in children!) so hopefully the new data will provide us with an additional piece in this puzzle.

For more information about the LOOK Lifestyle Study visit www.look.org.au or drop me an email (sdocherty@aecc.ac.uk)

Sharon Docherty, Researcher, Anglo European College of Chiropractic