Professor Tom Yates

Professor Tom Yates is based at the Diabetes Research Centre where he is the Director of the Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group. His research is aimed at harnessing the power of lifestyle behaviours to empower multi-ethnic populations with or at risk of long-term conditions (LTCs) to live longer and better lives with expertise that spans the 5 S’s (sleep, sedentary behaviour, stepping, sweating and strengthening). He is also the co-theme lead for the Lifestyle theme of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.

Professor Tom Yates lead the Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group to a £14 million Expanding Excellence in England award from Research England that is enabling a step change in the capability and capacity for undertaking lifestyle research at the University of Leicester. This builds upon a growing portfolio of research excellence evidenced by Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF2021) where Prof Tom Yates lead the University of Leicester's first submission to Unit of Assessment 24 (Sports Science) where the quality of the research outputs, impact and environment were all rated as world leading or internationally excellent.

Prof Yates leads a broad portfolio of research investigating how lifestyle behaviours can be optimised as therapies in the prevention and management of chronic disease. This encompasses new research investigating how physical activity and exercise can be used in synergy with the latest generations of weight management medications to promote the preservation of muscle mass and maximise whole body health. Prof Yates led the set-up of the new OPAL study, an ongoing adaptive platform trial, that is investigating whether combining exercise therapy with different weight loss interventions can promote better functional health.

His research spans the translation gaps from epidemiology and early phase experimental research through to phase 3 clinical trials and on to implementing research into routine care pathways.

Prof Yates has published over 300 articles, full profile available through Google Scholar. Selected references below. 

• Rowlands AV, Kingsnorth AP, Hansen BH, Fairclough SJ, Boddy LM......Yates T. Enhancing clinical and public health interpretation of accelerometer-assessed physical activity with age-referenced values based on UK biobank data. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 2025 Dec 1;14:100977.

• Biddle GJ, Henson J, Davies MJ, Dunstan D, Khunti K, King JA, Rowlands AV, Edwardson CL, Yates T. Acute and chronic effects of an intervention aiming to reduce prolonged sitting on glucose regulation in individuals with dysglycaemia. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2025 Jan 20:1-1.

• Yates T, Razieh C, Henson J, Rowlands AV, Goldney J, Gulsin GS, Davies MJ, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, McCann GP. Device-measured physical activity and cardiac structure by magnetic resonance. European Heart Journal. 2025 Jan 7;46(2):176-86.

• Zaccardi F, Rowlands AV, Dempsey PC, Razieh C, Henson J......Yates T. Interplay between physical activity volume and intensity with modeled life expectancy in women and men: A prospective cohort analysis. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 2025 Dec 1;14:100970.

• Henson J, Covenant A, Hall AP, Herring L, Rowlands AV, Yates T, Davies MJ. Waking up to the importance of sleep in Type 2 Diabetes management: A narrative review. Diabetes Care. 2024 Mar 1;47(3):331-43.

• Sargeant JA, Ahmad E, James E, Baker L, Bilak JM.....Yates T, Davies MJ. Impact of exercise training in combination with dapagliflozin on physical function in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: study protocol for the Dapagliflozin, Exercise Training and physicAl function (DETA) randomised controlled trial. BMJ open. 2024 Nov 1;14(11):e084482.

• Goldney J, Henson J, Edwardson CL, Khunti K, Davies MJ, Yates T. Long-term ambient air pollution exposure and prospective change in sedentary behaviour and physical activity in individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes in the UK. Journal of Public Health. 2024 Mar;46(1):e32-42.

• Rowlands AV, Orme MW, Maylor B, Kingsnorth A, Herring L, Khunti K, Davies M, Yates T. Can quantifying the relative intensity of a person’s free-living physical activity predict how they respond to a physical activity intervention? Findings from the PACES RCT. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023 Nov 1;57(22):1428-34.

• Yates T, Sargeant JA, King JA, Henson J, Edwardson CL, Redman E, Gulsin GS, Brady EM, Ahmad E, Stensel DJ, Webb DR. Initiation of new glucose-lowering therapies may act to reduce physical activity levels: pooled analysis from three randomized trials. Diabetes Care. 2022;45(11):2749-52.

• Dempsey PC, Rowlands AV, Strain T, Zaccardi F, Dawkins N, Razieh C, Davies MJ, Khunti KK, Edwardson CL, Wijndaele K, Brage S, Yates T. Physical activity volume, intensity, and incident cardiovascular disease. European Heart Journal. 2022;43(46):4789-800

• Dasgupta K, Boulé N, Henson J, Chevalier S, Redman E......Yates T. Remission of type 2 diabetes and improved diastolic function by combining structured exercise with meal replacement and food reintroduction among young adults: the RESET for REMISSION randomised controlled trial protocol. BMJ open. 2022 Sep 1;12(9):e063888.

• Plekhanova T, Rowlands AV, Evans RA…….Yates T. Device-assessed sleep and physical activity in individuals recovering from a hospital admission for COVID-19: a multicentre study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2022;19(1):1-3.

• Hartescu I, Stensel DJ, Thackray AE, King JA, Dorling JL, Rogers EN, Hall AP, Brady EM, Davies MJ, Yates T, Morgan K. Sleep extension and metabolic health in male overweight/obese short sleepers: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Sleep Research. 2022 Apr;31(2):e13469.

• Dempsey PC, Musicha C, Rowlands AV, Davies M, Khunti K, Razieh C, Timmins I, Zaccardi F, Codd V, Nelson CP, Yates T. Investigation of a UK biobank cohort reveals causal associations of self-reported walking pace with telomere length. Communications biology. 2022;5(1):1-7.

• Yates T, Summerfield A, Razieh C, Banerjee A, Chudasama Y, Davies MJ, Gillies C, Islam N, Lawson C, Mirkes E, Zaccardi F. A population-based cohort study of obesity, ethnicity and COVID-19 mortality in 12.6 million adults in England. Nature communications. 2022;13(1):1-9.

• 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. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2021 Jul 1;55(14):814-5.

• Khunti K, Griffin S, Brennan A, Dallosso H, Davies MJ, Eborall HC, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Hardeman W, Heathcote L, Henson J…..Yates T. Promoting physical activity in a multi-ethnic population at high risk of diabetes: the 48-month PROPELS randomised controlled trial. BMC medicine. 2021;19(1):1-1.

• Khunti K, Highton PJ, Waheed G, Dallosso H, Redman E, Batt ME, Davies MJ, Gray LJ, Herring LY, Mani H, Rowlands A, Yates T. Promoting physical activity with self-management support for those with multimorbidity: a randomised controlled trial. British Journal of General Practice. 2021;71(713):e921-30.

• Sargeant JA, Jelleyman C, Coull NA, Edwardson CL, Henson J, King JA, Khunti K, McCarthy M, Rowlands AV, Stensel DJ, Waller HL, Webb D, Davies MJ, Yates T. Improvements in Glycemic Control After Acute Moderate-Intensity Continuous or High-Intensity Interval Exercise Are Greater in South Asians Than White Europeans With Nondiabetic Hyperglycemia: A Randomized Crossover Study. Diabetes Care. 2021;44:201-9.

• Dawkins NP, Yates T, Razieh C, Edwardson CL, Maylor B, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Rowlands AV. Differences in Accelerometer-Measured Patterns of Physical Activity and Sleep/Rest Between Ethnic Groups and Age: An Analysis of UK Biobank. Journal of Physical Activity and Health. 2021;26;19(1):37-46

• Islam N, Shkolnikov VM, Acosta RJ, Klimkin I, Kawachi I, Irizarry RA, Alicandro G, Khunti K, Yates T, Jdanov DA, White M. Excess deaths associated with covid-19 pandemic in 2020: age and sex disaggregated time series analysis in 29 high income countries. bmj. 2021 19;373.

• Jones PJ, James MK, Davies MJ, Khunti K, Catt M, Yates T, Rowlands AV, Mirkes EM. FilterK: A new outlier detection method for k-means clustering of physical activity. Journal of biomedical informatics. 2020;104:103397.

• Ekelund U, Tarp J, Steene-Johannessen J, Hansen BH, Jefferis B, Fagerland MW, Whincup P……Yates T, Anderssen S, I-Min Lee. Dose-response associations between accelerometry measured physical activity and sedentary time and all-cause mortality: systematic review and harmonised meta-analysis. BMJ 2019 21;366:l4570.

• Yates T, Edwardson CL, Celis-Morales C, Biddle SJ, Bodicoat D, Davies MJ, Esliger D, Henson J, Kazi A, Khunti K, Sattar N. Metabolic effects of breaking prolonged sitting with standing or light walking in older South Asians and White Europeans: a randomized acute study. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. 2020;75(1):139-46.

• Edwardson CL, Yates T, Biddle SJ, 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;363:k3870.