What’s your name and where are you from?
My name is Jaime López García, and I am from Sevilla, Spain.
Where are you based and who are your supervisors?
I am currently working as PhD researcher at Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) in Paris, France. My supervisor is Séverine Sabia from INSERM, my co-supervisor is Eivind Aadland from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and other associate partners in my project are Bjorge Herman Hansen from University of Agder (Norway) and Nicolas Berger from Sciensano (Belgium)
What’s your educational background?
I have a bachelor’s degree in Physical Activity and Sports and a master’s degree in Physical Activity and Health in adults and older adults. Additionally, during both studies, I completed different courses related to data science and statistics.
What’s your PhD topic?
My PhD is called the importance of the activity intensity distribution for health across lifespan. Most of the previous research on the association between accelerometer-measured physical activity and health has been focused on the use of specific range of the spectrum of activity distribution (moderate-to-vigorous intensity, sedentary behaviour, etc) ignoring the impact of the other intensities on health. Additionally, the large variability of cut-points used to categories the activity intensity distribution, hamper the comparability and interpretability of the results between studies. Hence, for this PhD, I will use two advanced statistical methods, functional data analysis and multivariate pattern analysis, used previously in other fields of science to assess the associations of health and accelerometer-measured PA, including the full spectrum of activity intensity across all age groups.
What was the last professional or educational activity before joining LABDA?
Before starting this project, I completed my research internship in a Spanish research group (EPAFIT) focused on public health, using the physical activity and technology data for the promotion of population health. During this period, I learned about the measurement of physical activity using accelerometer and how to manage data from large datasets.
What would you like to achieve with your research work?
The goal of my PhD and research is to propose an alternative approach to assessing the relationship between physical activity and health, while preserving the high-density data provided by accelerometers. These advanced methods could enable a more comprehensive understanding of physical activity, which is essential for developing targeted interventions or recommendations guidelines for youth, adults, and older adults. Additionally, I would like to apply these methods to other at-risk populations (e.g. cancer survivors) in the future.
What’s your role within LABDA?
Within LABDA, I am working in the role of career development, where we focus on the planning and coordination of the different trainings and courses that will support the future growth and development of the fellows involved in the LABDA project.
Can you tell us one personal thing about you that is weird or funny?
I am passionate about sharks. I can spend hours and hours watching documentaries or films (even bad ones). I have a small stuffed shark that I take with me on all my trips. Whenever I travel to a new city, the first thing I do is to find the nearest aquarium to see the sharks.
