I was appointed as a Lecturer in the Health Studies Field in January 2012.  I first joined the Health Studies team as a graduate teaching assistant in 2008 to study part time for a PhD in public health.

My PhD research is an investigation into neighbourhood and individual level factors associated with physical activity levels in 40 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in London.  These factors include exercise facilities, mental wellbeing, safety, street connectivity and land use.

My research is indurtaken with the Institute of Health and Human Development at UEL (www.uel.ac.uk/IHHD) and as part of the Well London Project (www.welllondon.org.uk)

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Research areas include: -

• Environmental determinants of health behaviours.
• Epidemiology of obesity, physical activity and healthy eating.
• Interventions to promote sustainable healthy lifestlyes.
• Reasearch methods.
• Public health and health promotion theory.

• HS211 - Environment and Health
• HS201 - Public Health: Policy and Strategy

• Watts, P., Phillips, G., Petticrew, M., Harden, A. & Renton, A. (2011). “The influence of environmental factors on the generalisability of public health research evidence: physical activity as a worked example.” International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 8:128 doi:10.1186/1479-5868-8-128 (http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/pdf/1479-5868-8-128.pdf)

• Yu, G., Renton, A., Schmidt, E., Tobi, P., Bertotti, M., Watts, P & Lais, S. (2011) A multilevel analysis of the association between social networks and support on leisure time physical activity: Evidence from 40 disadvantaged areas in London. Health and Place - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21784693.

• Watts, P., Phillips, G., Petticrew, M., Renton, A., Hayes, R., Bottomley, C., Yu, G., Schmidt, E., Moore, D., Frostick., C & Locke, K. (September 2011 – Oral presentation) "Determinants of physical activity in deprived communities in London: examining the effects of individual and neighbourhood characteristics” Annual meeting of the Society for Social Medicine (Warwick).

• Watts, P., Phillips, G., Petticrew, M., Renton, A., Hayes, R., Bottomley, C., Yu, G., Schmidt, E., Moore, D., Frostick., C & Locke, K. (September 2011 – Poster presentation accepted) "Determinants of physical activity in deprived communities in London: examining the effects of individual and neighbourhood characteristics" Health and Wellbeing - The 21st Century Agenda – Journal of the Royal Society for Public Health (London).

• Watts, P., Phillips, G., Petticrew, M., Harden, A. & Renton, A. (September, 2011 - Poster Presentation). “The influence of environmental factors on the generalisability of public health research evidence: physical activity as a worked example.” Health and Wellbeing - The 21st Century Agenda – Journal of the Royal Society for Public Health (London).

• Watts, P., (October, 2009 - Oral Presentation).  "Theoretical approaches to researching environmental influences on physical activity"  Environment and Healthy Lifestyles Conference - University of Stafforsdhire (Stoke-on-Trent).