ABSTRACT
Epidemiologic research in health and physical activity consider the relationship between physical activity and various health outcomes in a population. The central hypothesis of modern epidemiologic research in this field is that lack of physical activity associates with chronic disease incidence. This chapter introduces some of the key methods used in epidemiologic research and provides examples of study designs, data collection and analytic methods. We discuss how to interpret findings from observational studies, with a special focus on causality and different sources of bias. The chapter also reviews dose-response relationships and the impact of sedentary behaviour, both current topics in the field.
