Dr Kristiann C. Heesch

BA (Government) (Dartmouth College, USA), MPH (Health Promotion/Health Education) (Univ. Texas), DrPH (Health Promotion/Health Education) (Univ. Texas)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Physical Activity and Health

Contact details

Rm 406
Phone: (+61) 7 3346 9898
Fax: (+61) 7 3365 6877
E-mail: kheesch@hms.uq.edu.au

Background

Kristi joined the Physical Activity and Health Team as a Research Fellow in July of 2005. She completed her MPH (Master of Public Health degree) in 1997 and her DrPH (Doctor of Public Health degree) in 2001. During her master's program, she received the Beth Grossman Memorial Scholarship, and for her doctoral program, she received a National Cancer Institute Predoctoral Fellowship. During her graduate training she worked on the Women on the Move study, a study developed to measure lifestyle physical activity of middle aged and older women. After completion of the study, she pilot tested an intervention appropriate for women. For her master's thesis, she examined perceptions of women towards short (10 minutes, 3 times per day) versus long sessions (one 30-minute session) of physical activity. For her doctoral dissertation, she assessed the impact of adherence to a lifestyle physical activity intervention (i.e. attendance in class, completion of homework, completion of scheduled phone calls, and submission of pedometer logs) on physical activity behaviour and on potential theoretical mediators of physical activity.

In 2002, Dr Heesch began a tenure track position as Assistant Professor of Health Promotion in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the University of Oklahoma (OU), Norman campus. In this position, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in health promotion planning and behavioural change theories, advised health promotion graduate students, and conducted physical activity-related research.

Her research focus at OU was the development of interventions to increase lifestyle physical activity among women. She collaborated with a colleague to develop an email-delivered, pedometer-based physical activity intervention. They offered the intervention twice in pilot studies, and as part of the intervention, collected qualitative and quantitative data to assess changes in physical activity, potential theoretical mediators of physical activity, and participants' perceptions of the minimum contact pedometer approach.

Another focus of her research at OU was the validation of instruments measuring psychosocial correlates of physical activity. She collaborated with colleagues at the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Cooper Institute to analyse the validity of three surveys commonly used in the physical activity literature.

Since arriving at UQ-HMS, Kristi has concentrated on two major research areas. One has been the analysis of physical activity data. Primarily, she is analysing data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health. She is specifically focused on assessing the association between physical activity and various health outcomes, such as anxiety/depression, arthritis, and falls to the ground, in older women.

Her other major work is helping to develop interventions to increase physical activity in special populations. She is working with a PhD student as an associate supervisor on a project to evaluate how well a walking program can improve the well-being of individuals with osteoarthritis. She is also an associate supervisor of a student developing an exercise program for colorectal cancer patients post-chemotherapy. Her last intervention work is as part of a team planning an intervention in Caboolture to encourage pregnant women and new mothers to become physically active and eat better.

Research Interests

Beginning in graduate school, Kristi has focused her research on physical activity behaviour of women. Her particular interests are understanding the psychosocial and environmental determinants/correlates of physical activity, learning optimal ways to measure these determinants/correlates, and using knowledge about them to create interventions which can lead to changes in physical activity behaviour.

Selected Publications

For a full list of Dr Heesch's publications since commencing at UQ and current and past UQ research projects, please refer to the UQreSEARCHers website.

Han, J.L., Dinger, M.K., Hull , H.R., Randall, N., Heesch, K.C., & Fields, D.A. (in press) . Changes in women's physical activity during the transition to college. American Journal of Health Education.

Heesch, K.C., Byles, J.E., & Brown, W.J. (in press). Prospective association between physical activity and falls in community-dwelling older women. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Hull, H.R., Morrow, M.L., Heesch , K.C., Din g er, M.K., Han, J.L. , & Fields, D.A. (in press). Effect of the summer months on body weight and composition in college females. Journal of Women's Health.

Rice, K.R., Heesch , K.C., Dinger, M.K., & Fields, D. (2008). Effects of 2 brief interventions on women's understanding of moderate-intensity physical activity. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 7(5), 58-73.

Randall, N. B., Han, J.L., Dinger, M.K., Heesch , K.C., Fields, D.A. , & Knehens, A.W. (2007). Changes in women's physical activity over their freshman year of college . American Journal of Health Studies, 22 (1), 42-45.

Heesch , K.C., & Han, J.L. (2007). Associations between demographic, perceptual, and behavioral factors and support for policies encouraging active transport. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 4 (3), 261-277.

Spence, R.R., Heesch, K.C., Brown, W.J. & Eakin, E.G. (2007). Randomised controlled trial of a supervised exercise rehabilitation program for colorectal cancer survivors immediately after chemotherapy: study protocol. BMC Cancer, 7, 154, doi:10.1186/1471-2407-7-154.

Dinger, M.K., Heesch , K.C., Cipriani, G., & Qualls, M. (2007). Comparison of two email-delivered, pedometer-based interventions to promote walking among insufficiently active women. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 10 (5), 297-302.

Hull, H.R., Heesch, K.C., Morrow, M.L., Dinger, M.K., & Fields, D.A. (2007). Fat distribution changes during the freshman year of college in females: A pear or an apple?. International Journal of Body Composition Research, 5 (2), 45-50.

Heesch , K.C., Miller, Y.D., & Brown, W.J. (2007). Relationship between physical activity and stiff or painful joints in mid-aged and older women: A 3 year prospective study. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 9, R34. Available at arthritis-research.com/content/9/2/R34.

Heesch, K.C., Mâsse, L.C.,& Dunn, A.L. (2006). Using Rasch Modeling to re-evaluate three scales related to physical activity. Health Education Research, 21(Suppl 1), i58-i72.

Mâsse, L.C., Heesch, K.C., Eason, K.E. & Wilson, M.R. (2006). Evaluating the properties of a stage-specific self-efficacy scale for physical activity using classical test theory, confirmatory factor analysis and item response modeling. Health Education Research, 21(Suppl 1), i33-i44.

Morrow, M.L., Heesch , K.C., Dinger, M.K., Hull, H.R., Kneehans, A.W., & Fields, D.A. (2006). Freshman Fifteen: Fact or fiction? Obesity, 14, 1438-1443.

Heesch, K.C., Mâsse, L.C., Dunn, A.L., & Frankowski, R.F. (2006). The association between number of homework completed during a lifestyle physical activity intervention and scores on transtheoretical measures. Journal of Applied Sports Psychology 18, 83-96.

Behrens, T.M., Dinger, M.K., Heesch , K.C., & White, S.B. (2005). College students' understanding of moderate physical activity: A qualitative study. American Journal of Health Studies, 20(3-4), 129-134.

Dinger, M.K., Heesch, K.C., & McClary, K.R. (2005). Feasibility of a minimal contact intervention to promote walking among insufficiently active women. American Journal of Health Promotion, 20(1), 2-6.

Heesch, K.C., Dinger, M.K., McClary, K.R., & Rice, K.R. (2005). Reaction of women to a minimal contact pedometer-based intervention: A qualitative study. Women & Health, 41(2), 97-116.

Heesch, K.C., Velasquez, M.M., & von Sternberg, K. (2005 ). Readiness for mental health treatment and for alcohol treatment in patients with comorbid psychiatric and alcohol disorders: Are they congruent? Addictive Behaviors 30(3), 531-543.

Heesch, K.C., & Mâsse, L.C. (2004). Lack of time for physical activity: Perception or reality for African American and Hispanic women? Women & Health, 39 (3), 45-62.

Heesch, K.C., Mâsse, L.C ., Frankowski, R.F ., & Dunn, A.L . (2004). Adherence within and between lifestyle physical activity groups in Project PRIME. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 1(1), 29-44.

Heesch, K.C., Mâsse, L.C., Dunn, A.L., Frankowski, R.F., & Dolan Mullen, P. (2003). Does adherence to a lifestyle physical activity intervention predict changes in physical activity? J ournal of Behavioral Medicine, 26 (4), 333-348.

Mâsse, L.C., Heesch , K.C., Fulton , J.E., & Watson, K.B. (2002). Raters' objectivity in using the Compendium of Physical Activities to code physical activity diaries. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 6(4), 207-224.

Fulton, J.E., Mâsse, L.C., Heesch , K.C., Watson, K.B., Tortolero, S.N., Blair, S.N., Kohl, H.W., & Caspersen, C. (2001). Field evaluation of energy expenditure from continuous and intermittent walking in women. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33(1), 163-170.

Heesch, K.C., Brown, D.R., & Blanton, C.J. (2000). Perceived barriers to exercise and stage of exercise adoption in older minority and Caucasian women. Women & Health, 30(4), 61-76.

Heesch, K.C., Mâsse, L.C., & Aday, L.A. (2000). Perceptions of sedentary African-American women about continuous versus intermittent walking. Women & Health, 30(4), 43-59.

Mâsse, L.C., Fulton, J.E., Watson, K.L., Heesch, K.C., Kohl, H.W., Blair, S.N., & Tortolero, S.R. (1999). Detecting patterns of physical activity: A field comparison of the TRITRAC and CSA accelerometer. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 70(3), 212-219.

 

Research Students

Further details on theses topics can be found on the UQreSEARCHers website.

Doctor of Philosophy (Associate Advisor)

• Tiong Meng Ng
• Rosalind Spence (Smith)