Professor Charlotte Edwardson

Charlotte completed a BSc in Applied Sports Science (2004) and MSc (2005) and PhD (part time, 2010) in Physical Activity and Health, from Loughborough University. Alongside her PhD she worked as a Research Associate (2005-2010) for the Institute of Youth Sport, Loughborough University where she specialised in the evaluation of physical activity initiatives in young people. Following this she moved into the area of diabetes prevention and worked as a Research Associate, University Hospitals of Leicester (2010-2013), on several randomised controlled trials focused on increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour in people with a high risk of type 2 diabetes.

In 2013 she was appointed Lecturer in the Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester, and subsequently Associate Professor in 2016 and then Professor in 2023. Over the last decade, Charlotte has worked with Professor Yates to build the Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group, which conducts research to understand how movement behaviours can prevent and manage long term health conditions e.g., type 2 diabetes. 

Charlotte’s current research encompasses developing and evaluating interventions to reduce sitting time and increase physical activity, establishing valid and reliable assessment of physical behaviours and developing robust methods for cleaning and processing accelerometer data. Charlotte has developed software to bulk process, visualise and summarise activPAL data and made this freely available for the research community (Processing PAL). Charlotte has published >160 peer reviewed articles and has been awarded ~£10 million from prestigious funding bodies such as NIHR, MRC and the European Commission. She is currently the Editor in Chief for the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour.  

Selected publications (full list available at: ‪Charlotte Edwardson - ‪Google Scholar)

• Maylor BD*, Edwardson CL*, Clarke-Cornwell AM, Davies MJ, Dawkins NP, Dunstan DW, Khunti K, Yates T, Rowlands AV. Physical Activity Assessed by Wrist and Thigh Worn Accelerometry and Associations with Cardiometabolic Health. Sensors (Basel). 2023 Aug 23;23(17):7353. doi: 10.3390/s23177353. *Joint first authors.
• Cox E, Walker S, Edwardson CL, Biddle SJH, Clarke-Cornwell AM, Clemes SA, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Eborall H, Granat MH, Gray LJ, Healy GN, Maylor BD, Munir F, Yates T, Richardson G. The Cost-Effectiveness of the SMART Work & Life Intervention for Reducing Sitting Time. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 11;19(22):14861. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192214861.
• Plekhanova T, Rowlands AV, Davies MJ, Hall AP, Yates T, Edwardson CL. Validation of an automated sleep detection algorithm using data from multiple accelerometer brands. J Sleep Res. 2023 Jun;32(3):e13760. doi: 10.1111/jsr.13760.
• Edwardson CL, Biddle SJH, Clemes SA, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Eborall H, Granat MH, Gray LJ, Healy GN, Jaicim NB, Lawton S, Maylor BD, Munir F, Richardson G, Yates T, Clarke-Cornwell AM. Effectiveness of an intervention for reducing sitting time and improving health in office workers: three arm cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2022 Aug 17;378:e069288. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2021-069288.
• Clemes SA, Varela-Mato V, Bodicoat DH, Brookes CL, Chen YL, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Guest AJ, Johnson V, Munir F, Paine NJ, Richardson G, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Sherry A, Di Paola AS, Troughton J, Yates T, King JA. The effectiveness of the Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (SHIFT): a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT). BMC Med. 2022 May 24;20(1):195. doi: 10.1186/s12916-022-02372-7.
• Ekelund U, Tarp J, Fagerland MW, Johannessen JS, Hansen BH, Jefferis BJ, Whincup PH, Diaz KM, Hooker S, Howard VJ, Chernofsky A, Larson MG, Spartano N, Vasan RS, Dohrn IM, Hagströmer M, Edwardson C, Yates T, Shiroma EJ, Dempsey P, Wijndaele K, Anderssen SA, Lee IM. Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals. Br J Sports Med. 2020 Dec;54(24):1499-1506. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103270.
• Bailey DP, Edwardson CL, Pappas Y, Dong F, Hewson DJ, Biddle SJH, Brierley ML, Chater AM. A randomised-controlled feasibility study of the REgulate your SItting Time (RESIT) intervention for reducing sitting time in individuals with type 2 diabetes: study protocol. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2021 Mar 19;7(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s40814-021-00816-0.
• Chen YL, Tolfrey K, Pearson N, Bingham DD, Edwardson C, Cale L, Dunstan D, Barber SE, Clemes SA. Stand Out in Class: Investigating the Potential Impact of a Sit-Stand Desk Intervention on Children's Sitting and Physical Activity during Class Time and after School. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 29;18(9):4759. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094759.
• Edwardson CL,  Maylor BD,  Dawkins NP, Plekhanova T, Rowlands AV (2022) Comparability of Postural and Physical Activity Metrics from Different Accelerometer Brands Worn on the Thigh: Data Harmonization Possibilities, Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 26:1, 39-50, doi: 10.1080/1091367X.2021.1944154
• Khunti K, Griffin S, Brennan A, Dallosso H, Davies MJ, Eborall HC, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Hardeman W, Heathcote L, Henson J, Pollard D, Sharp SJ, Sutton S, Troughton J, Yates T. Promoting physical activity in a multi-ethnic population at high risk of diabetes: the 48-month PROPELS randomised controlled trial. BMC Med. 2021 Jun 3;19(1):130. doi: 10.1186/s12916-021-01997-4.
• Ekelund U, Tarp J, Fagerland MW, Johannessen JS, Hansen BH, Jefferis BJ, Whincup PH, Diaz KM, Hooker S, Howard VJ, Chernofsky A, Larson MG, Spartano N, Vasan RS, Dohrn IM, Hagströmer M, Edwardson C, Yates T, Shiroma EJ, Dempsey P, Wijndaele K, Anderssen SA, Lee IM. Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals. Br J Sports Med. 2020 Dec;54(24):1499-1506. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103270.
• Rowlands A, Davies M, Dempsey P, Edwardson C, Razieh C, Yates T. Wrist-worn accelerometers: recommending ~1.0 mg as the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) in daily average acceleration for inactive adults. Br J Sports Med. 2021 Jul;55(14):814-815. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102293.
• Plekhanova T, Rowlands AV, Yates T, Hall A, Brady E, Davies M, Khunti K, Edwardson CL. Equivalency of sleep estimates from three research-grade accelerometers. Journal of the Measurement of Physical Behaviours. 2020, 3 (4), 294-303. Doi:10.1123/jmpb.2019-0047.
• Biddle SJH, O'Connell SE, Davies MJ, Dunstan D, Edwardson CL, Esliger DW, Gray LJ, Yates T, Munir F. Reducing sitting at work: process evaluation of the SMArT Work (Stand More At Work) intervention. Trials. 2020 May 13;21(1):403. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04300-7.
• Munir F*, Miller P, Biddle SJH, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Esliger DW, Gray LJ, O'Connell SE, Waheed G, Yates T, Edwardson CL*. A Cost and Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Stand More AT Work (SMArT Work) Intervention. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 13;17(4):1214. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041214. *Joint first authors.
• Edwardson CL, Henson J, Biddle SJH, Davies MJ, Khunti K, Maylor B, Yates T. activPAL and ActiGraph Assessed Sedentary Behavior and Cardiometabolic Health Markers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2020 Feb;52(2):391-397. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002138.
• Ekelund U, Tarp J, Steene-Johannessen J, Hansen BH, Jefferis B, Fagerland MW, Whincup P, Diaz KM, Hooker SP, Chernofsky A, Larson MG, Spartano N, Vasan RS, Dohrn IM, Hagströmer M, Edwardson C, Yates T, Shiroma E, Anderssen SA, Lee IM. Dose-response associations between accelerometry measured physical activity and sedentary time and all cause mortality: systematic review and harmonised meta-analysis. BMJ. 2019 Aug 21;366:l4570. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4570.
• Rowlands AV, Plekhanova T, Yates T, Mirkes EM, Davies M, Khunti K, Edwardson CL. A basis for harmonisation of accelerometer-assessed physical activity outcomes in epidemiology. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour. 2019. 2(3), 131-142. Doi: 10.1123/jmpb.2018-0073.
• Edwardson CL, Yates T, Biddle SJH, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Esliger DW, Gray LJ, Jackson B, O'Connell SE, Waheed G, Munir F. Effectiveness of the Stand More AT (SMArT) Work intervention: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2018 Oct 10;363:k3870. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k3870.  

Please refer to Charlotte's research areas for possible supervision topics

Charlotte currently teaches on the Diabetes MSc

Please refer to Charlotte's research areas for topics