International Physical Activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) Adolescent study

The IPEN Adolescent study is a large international study that collected comparable data from 15 countries across 6 continents on built environments and physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour and obesity. The IPEN Coordinating Center is now supported by the Australian Catholic University, Mary Mackillop Institute for Health Research (The Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Program).

Adolescence is the time of steepest decline in PA. The potential effects of the built environment on physical activity are even less understood in youths than adults. By gathering data from 15 countries, IPEN Adolescent can more accurately assess the strength of association of built environment features with PA, sedentary behaviour, and weight status in adolescence. IPEN Adolescence has three primary aims:

1. Assess the relationship between the actual and perceived built environment and device measured physical activity and sedentary time in adolescence.
2. Assess the relationship between the actual and perceived built environment and self-reported walking/cycling to/from school and participation in physical activity.
3. Assess the relationship between the actual and perceived features of the built environment and overweight/obesity in adolescence.

The ultimate goal of IPEN Adolescent is to stimulate and guide actions toward more activity-supportive environments around the world to support adolescents' physical activity.

Please visit the main IPEN website for more detail about IPEN Adolescent.

Funding Acknowledgement: The IPEN Adolescent study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL111378) from 2012 to 2017. The NIH grant funded the Coordinating Center based at UC San Diego (Initially at San Diego State University) as well as data collection in several countries. Most countries were supported by internal grants.

Investigators by country

AUSTRALIA
*Jo Salmon jo.salmon@deakin.edu.au
Jenny Veitch jenny.veitch@deakin.edu.au
Anna Timperio anna.timperio@deakin.edu.au
Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au

BANGLADESH
*Zaki Islam zakiislam.mail@gmail.com

BELGIUM
*Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij ilse.debourdeaudhuij@ugent.be
Delfien Van Dyck delfien.vandyck@ugent.be

BRAZIL
*Rodrigo Reis reis.rodrigo@wustl.edu
Akira Hino akira_manaca@yahoo.com.br

CZECH REPUBLIC
*Josef Mitáš josef.mitas@upol.cz
Karel Frömel karel.fromel@upol.cz
Jan Dygryn jan.dygryn@upol.cz

DENMARK
*Jens Troelsen JTroelsen@health.sdu.dk
Lars Breum Christensen lbchristiansen@health.sdu.dk
Jasper Schipperijn jschipperijn@health.sdu.dk

HONG KONG
*Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au
Poh-chin Lai pclai@hku.hk
Anthony Barnett Anthony.Barnett@acu.edu.au

INDIA
*RM Anjana dranjana@drmohans.com
Guha Pradeepa guhapradeepa@gmail.com
Ranjani Harish drranjanih@gmail.com

ISRAEL
*Mika Moran moran.mika@gmail.com
Orna Baron-Epel ornaepel@research.haifa.ac.il

MALAYSIA
*Wan Manan wanmanan@gmail.com
Yi Yi Lee leeyy.yiyi@gmail.com

NEW ZEALAND
*Grant Schofield grant.schofield@aut.ac.nz
*Erica Hinckson erica.hinckson@aut.ac.nz
Suzanna Mavoa suzanne.mavoa@unimelb.edu.au
Hannah Badland hannah.badland@rmit.edu.au
Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au

NIGERIA
*Adewale Oyeyemi alaoyeyemi@yahoo.com
Adetoyeje Oyeyemi adeoyeyemi@aol.com

PORTUGAL
*Jorge Mota jmota@fade.up.pt
Paula Maria Santos msantos@fade.up.pt
Andreia Pizarro Andreia anpizarro@fade.up.pt

SPAIN
*Javier Molina-Garcia Javier.Molina@uv.es
Ana Queralt Ana.Queralt@uv.es

US Coordinating Center - Australian Catholic University and UC San Diego
*Jim Sallis jsallis@ucsd.edu
Jacqueline Kerr jkerr@ucsd.edu
Kelli Cain kcain@ucsd.edu
Terry Conway tlconway@ucsd.edu
Carrie Geremia cgeremia@ucsd.edu
Marc Adams marc.adams@asu.edu
Larry Frank ldfrank@urbandesign4health.com
Jim Chapman jchapman@urbandesign4health.com

*Denotes principal investigator

IPEN Adolescent Publications (using international pooled data)

Cain, K.L et al (2021) 'International physical activity and built environment study of adolescents: IPEN adolescent design, protocol and measures', BMJ Open, 11(1). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046636.

Cerin, E et al. (2014) 'Repeatability of self-report measures of physical activity, sedentary and travel behaviour in Hong Kong adolescents for the ihealt(h) and IPEN- adolescent studies', BMC Pediatrics, 14(1). doi:10.1186/1471-2431-14-12

Cerin, E et al. (2017) 'Reliability of self-report measures of correlates of obesity related behaviours in Hong Kong adolescents for the ihealt(h) and IPEN adolescent studies', Archives of Public Health, 75(1). doi:10.1186/s13690-017-0209-5.

Van Dyck, D. et al. (2022( 'Associations of accelerometer measured school- and non-school based phsyical activity and sedentary time with body mass index: IPEN adolescent study', International Journal of behavioual Nutrition and Phsyical activity, 19(1). doi:10.1186/s12966-022-01324-x.