Physical Activity and Health

Physical activity and health is a discipline grounded in the evidence that regular movement is one of the most powerful determinants of human health and wellbeing, with benefits that span cardiovascular disease, mental health, diabetes, cancer, and cognitive function across the life course. The field brings together exercise physiology, health psychology, epidemiology, and public health to understand not just how the body responds to exercise but why people are or are not physically active, and how health systems, communities, and policies can promote active lifestyles more effectively. It is applied science with a genuine public health purpose.

At the University of East Anglia, this three-year full-time programme sits within a university with strong research credentials in health and biomedical sciences, and the programme benefits from UEA's connections with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and with public health agencies in the region. You will study the physiology of exercise, the psychology of behaviour change, epidemiological methods for studying health and activity in populations, and the design and evaluation of physical activity interventions. You will develop quantitative research skills and an understanding of the evidence base that informs public health policy on physical activity.

The programme is designed to produce graduates who can work at the interface of exercise science and public health, understanding both the biological mechanisms through which physical activity affects health and the social, environmental, and behavioural factors that shape people's activity levels.

Graduates of physical activity and health programmes move into careers in health promotion, public health agencies and NHS trusts, community sport and leisure development, exercise referral and clinical exercise physiology, research, and health charities. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study, including master's programmes in public health, clinical exercise physiology, or health psychology, and some pursue doctoral research in exercise and health sciences.