Research focus

Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Research

SDGs focused on

Relevance and importance to UP, South Africa and Africa

The establishment of the Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute (SEMLI) addresses the importance of a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, to address the leading causes of most chronic diseases of aging and civilization. Specifically, SEMLI will focus on safe participation in regular physical activity and sport as an important part of chronic disease prevention and management. The Institute will, over the next decade or two, grow a number of high impact research activities in the fields of sport, exercise medicine and lifestyle research. The impact and relevance of the research undertaken by the SEMLI is reflected in its five main research areas:

• Prevention, management and rehabilitation of patients with non-communicable diseases (NCD’s) of lifestyle through patient-centred, comprehensive, lifestyle interventions that include promotion of physical activity and participation in recreational sport;
• Prevention, non-surgical management and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal and other injuries in sports, including all physically active individuals participating in recreational sports; and
• Prevention and management of medical complications and illness in sports, including all physically active individuals participating in recreational sports; and
• Enhancing excellence in sports performance.
• Sport and physical activity in society; including but not limited to economics, governance, management, ethics and education.

The activities of the Institute are premised on high quality research and publications, local and international, inter-disciplinary, collaborative relationships and a strong post-graduate student base.  The research platform is characterised by world class education, service delivery and the use of modern technologies and big data science.

The potential benefit to science and to society

The key focus of the Institute is in translational research and in the dissemination of the work of the Institute to the broader community.  In this way the Institute will play an important role not only in contributing to the scientific and medical knowledge base in the areas of sport, exercise medicine and lifestyle interventions, but to the application and relevance of this knowledge in a variety of population groups. An important component of the research activities in each of the main research areas will be to focus on the human being as a whole in society, therefore research activities will range from studying the human genome, to conducting population based epidemiological studies. A strong theme in the Institute is an emphasis on utilizing existing and developing new technology (wearable devices, smart phones, online technology, and “cloud” based applications) to conduct research (e-research), deliver education (e-learning) and provide services (e-services) in the fields of sport, exercise medicine and lifestyle interventions for chronic disease.

Benefits to investing in this research area

Investment into this niche research area will contribute to the societal and translational impact of the Institute’s research activities, which are aimed at:

• Reducing the national and international burden of chronic diseases
• Reducing risk of injury during physical activity
• Reducing risk of medical complications during physical activity
• Improving UP, regional, national and international sporting success
• Reducing health care costs
• Improving quality of life of individuals.