PASB 2025, Uppsala, 19th -21st March
KEYNOTES
‘Just right’ 24h physical behaviors – where do we go from here?
Andreas Holtermann; Professor, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen
Svend Erik Mathiassen; Senior Professor, University of Gävle
During the latest 10 years, research – facilitated by dramatic technological development – has moved towards attempts to understand how combinations of physical behaviors throughout multiple 24h days influence health. This has influenced the way researchers think, collect and analyze data, report their results, and give advice to practitioners about physical behaviors and health. Examples include recently developed concepts such as “Goldilocks zones”, “just right exposure”, and “Sweet spots”; and new methods related to these concepts, including “compositional analysis” and “isotemporal substitution”. However, research into the structure and effects of 24h combinations of physical behaviors needs new ways of thinking, beyond traditional concepts and variables such as average physical behaviors during a single day. In this keynote, we will challenge conventional ideas regarding physical behaviors and give suggestions for the direction of future research.
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A balancing act: Addressing physical overload and enhancing recovery in blue-collar workers using wearable technology and machine learning models
Elin Ekblom Bak; Professor, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm
Today, much attention is focused on the widespread issue of insufficient exercise and high levels of sedentary behavior in the general population. However, it’s important to recognize that approximately one-third of the Swedish workforce is engaged in physically demanding jobs, primarily in sectors like construction, manufacturing, and transportation. These workers often face job demands that exceed their physical capacity, potentially leading to an overload similar to overtraining in athletes. This can result in impaired blood glucose regulation, increased blood pressure, systemic inflammation, and depressed mood. The critical question we face is: how can we strike a healthy balance between daily activity and recovery for these workers, allowing them to exercise to improve their aerobic capacity and overall health without risking further overload? In the “PAradox project”, we will address this at the individual level using wearable technology and machine learning models, a method currently employed by some of the world´s leading athletes in both individual and team sports.
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The Vision of Large-Scale, Accurate, and Feasible Measurement of Physical Behaviors
Nidhi Gupta; Senior Researcher, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen
The vision: Imagine a world where everyone’s physical behaviors are effortlessly and accurately captured using standardized methods, painting a clear population-wide picture of physical behaviors and eventually their influence on health. Such comprehensive, large-scale, and standardized measurements of physical behaviors have the power to influence and transform research, practice and policies.
Due to the accuracy of wearables, they seem to be the future to address this vision. Research-graded wearables have led the way for decades. However, these methods are still complex, expert driven, and require large manual work, making policy makers and practitioners hesitant to switch to wearable-based methods.
This keynote discusses the challenges of implementing wearables for large-scale data collection. Additionally, it also explores the potential of new-generation accelerometry technology—equipped with wireless connectivity, data infrastructure, and algorithms that enable capturing complex behaviors more accurately than ever before —to bridge the gap between accuracy and feasibility. Moving forward, realizing the vision will require approaches that are independent of devices type, its placement and algorithms, supported by strong data ethics and intense testing of developed methods.
Additionally, the keynote will also explore the synergies between commercial and research-grade wearables, and highlight how integrating them can enable accurate, feasible, safe measurements of physical behaviors. Instead of one approach taking over the other, their combined strengths offer new possibilities for advancing the epidemiology, surveillance, and prevention practice.
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From data to discovery: Lessons learned from device-measured sleep and physical activity in the HUNT Study
Paul Jarle Mork; Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
In the latest round of the Norwegian population-based HUNT Study (HUNT4, 2017-2019), 24-hour device-measured physical activity and sleep data were collected over a period of up to 7 days from approximately 4,500 adolescents (56% female) and 28,000 adults (57% female) using accelerometers placed on the thigh and lower back. Machine learning models were developed to predict key daily activities (e.g., lying down, sitting, standing, slow walking [<4 km/h], moderate walking [4.1 to 5.4 km/h], brisk walking [>5.4 km/h], running, and cycling), sleep duration, and no-wear time. By linking these data with other information obtained in the HUNT Study (e.g., genetic data) and national registries (e.g., long-term sick leave), researchers have a unique opportunity to enhance our understanding of the impact of physical activity and sleep on public health. This keynote will summarize some key findings and insights gained from these the HUNT4 study. Additionally, the “HUNT4” method for measuring physical activity and sleep has been adopted by other studies, and some example applications will be presented.
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An Ergonomist’s Wish List for Relevant Biomechanical Measurements
Jens Wahlström; Associate Professor, Umeå University
The basics of relevant exposure assessments in relation to biomechanical load in the workplace are multifaceted. Firstly, the measurements on which the assessment is based need to be valid and reliable. They also need to be sufficiently precise and capable of capturing changes in load, not only during part of a task or a workday, but also to provide an overview of the load across one or, at times, several workdays. There are multiple perspectives and contexts in which these measurements need to be applicable. Assessments at the individual level may focus on health promotion, prevention, or rehabilitation. There is also a need for evaluations at the group level to assess interventions and increase knowledge of how biomechanical exposure impacts health in various ways. Learning from both previous examples and current needs, this presentation will outline a wish list from an ergonomist’s perspective.