Dr. Pamela Semanik's long-term career goal is to become a successful nurse researcher in the area of physical activity measurement/promotion in persons with arthritis. In May 2004 she returns to the faculty of the Northwestern University (NU) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) with a joint appointment at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing (UIC-CON). Her short-term career goals are 1) to become expert in exercise physiology/physical activity measurement research in disabled populations, 2) to become expert in community-based physical activity intervention research, and 3) to become an independently funded investigator. Her mentoring team includes a nurse physical activity promotion researcher (Jo Ellen Wilbur), a rheumatologist experienced in arthritis rehabilitation research (Rowland Chang), an epidemiologist/exercise physiologist who researches physical activity in the elderly (Loretta DiPietro), and an exercise physiologist who measures/promotes physical activity in the disabled (James Rimmer). The sponsoring institution (RIC) is the foremost rehabilitation research facility in the country. NU/RIC environment promotes interdisciplinary rheumatology research via an NIH-NIAMS funded P60. Physical activity promotion is a major focus of the UIC-CON research portfolio. Formal exercise physiology coursework is available in the UIC Department of Kinesiology. Dr. Semanik will also have access to the John B. Pierce Laboratories at Yale University to facilitate her proposed research, the aims of which are: 1) to determine if the metabolic equivalent (MET) intensity levels measured during the performance of selected lifestyle physical activities are different in persons with knee osteoarthfitis (OA) compared with age, gender, and BMI-matched control subjects (this would argue for making arthritis-related modifications to currently used self-reported physical activity measures), 2) to determine the validity and reliability of two physical activity measures modified for persons with knee OA, and 3) to pilot test a theoretically based lifestyle physical activity intervention to assist sedentary adults with knee OA increase their physical activity. Dr. Semanik will be mentored by the developers of the physical activity measurement instruments used in this study and by a nurse researcher expert in developing community-based, theoretically guided physical activity interventions. ? ? ?
| Semanik, Pamela; Song, Jing; Chang, Rowland W et al. (2010) Assessing physical activity in persons with rheumatoid arthritis using accelerometry. Med Sci Sports Exerc 42:1493-501 |
