IPEN Research
Teams
Czech Republic
IPEN Adult and Adolescent Research Team
Primary Investigator
Prof. Josef Mitáš
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-7219-931X
Josef Mitáš is a physical activity behavioral scientist and the leader of the Czech parts of IPEN studies. He is also the professor and co-founder of the Institute of Active Lifestyle at the Faulty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. Josef has been studying issues of physical activity and inactivity in adult and adolescent population with emphasis on the environmental determinants in the lifestyle and health-related behaviours, for more than 15 years. He has authored and co-authored over 60 papers on these topics in high-impact journals
He is the head of the working group “Environmental approaches to HEPA promotion” in the HEPA Europe network. Furthermore, he is the contact person for the Czech Republic for “The WHO Global Observatory for Physical Activity Country Cards”. Josef joined the IPEN in 2005. He is one of the main country investigators of both the IPEN Adult and IPEN Adolescent studies. Specifically, he is principal investigator of the Czech Republic arms, and member of the Publication Committee. Josef has led the work on the national adaptation and standardization of the Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) for both adult and adolescent studies.
Research Team
Dr. Jan Dygrýn
Orcid ID:0000-0003-1026-1784
Dan Dygrýn is a Deputy Head of the Institute of Active Lifestyle, Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czechia. His research has two parallel streams. The first focuses on the relationship between the built environment and human behavior using objective methods (GIS & GPS). The second is to apply novel methods to analyze and understand the deviced-based 24-hour movement behaviors (physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep).
Jan joined the IPEN in 2008. He guaranteed the built environment data collection and processing for the Czech arms of the IPEN Adults and IPEN Adolescent. In 2015, he defended his dissertation titled “The Geographic Information Systems in physical activity, obesity, and built environment research within adult population”. He is a member of the Czechia team in The Global Observatory of Healthy and Sustainable Cities.
Michal Vorlíček
Orcid ID:
Michal is a researcher at the Institute of Active Lifestyle at the Faculty of Physical Culture of Palacký University in Olomouc. His pedagogical activity is focused both practically (skateboarding, snowboarding) and theoretically (use of modern technologies in the prevention of civilization diseases). Michal’s project and research focuses mainly on the field of monitoring physical activity, active transport and application of modern technologies in the context of promoting physical activity and education of children and adolescents.
Michal joined the IPEN research group in 2014 as a PhD student of Professor Mitás. He has been actively involved in data collection within IPEN Adolescent and IPEN Adolescent GPS. As part of the IPEN Adolescent GPS initiative, Michal Vorlicek has established collaborations with teams from Denmark and New Zealand. This led to the successful completion of his PhD studies and the preparation of further publications in the field of spatial localization of physical activity and the influence of the built environment.
Prof. Karel Frömel
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-7848-3418
Karel Frömel was the head of the Institute of Active Lifestyle and held numerous professorships at the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Pedagogy and the Faculty of Physical Culture of the Palacký University in Olomouc. Since 2005, he has also been working as a professor at the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland. This makes it possible to solve health and lifestyle issues in different socioeconomic and educational conditions.
He studied mathematics and physical education. Due to this he has been dealing with issues of physical education, movement behaviour and methodology in sports sciences. As part of the education of master’s and doctoral students, he strives for the development of evidence-based physical education in schools and the connection of scientific theories with school practice.
He is the author of numerous important publications on the issue of physical activity and lifestyle. He was the main investigator of the research grant of the Czech Republic “Physical activity and inactivity of inhabitants of the Czech Republic in the context of behavioral changes”. Thanks to the collaboration with Prof. James F. Sallis, he has been involved in research activities within IPEN. This cooperation significantly contributed to the involvement of researchers from the Czech Republic in global research activities.
Lukáš Rubín
Orcid ID:
Project
Research of physical activity, lifestyle, obesity and environment (20-65 years) – Olomouc and Hradec Králové
The study is an epidemiologically observed research designed to compare differences between neighborhoods. Differences were based on walkability derived from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and socioeconomic status (census data) in different built environments. The main study aim is to estimate the associations between the built environment and total PA and transportation PA in adults living in cities in the Czech Republic.
Further, the aim is to carry out analyses of PA and the environment in the context with other socio-demographic and health factors with regard to environmental and psychosocial specifics of the Czech Republic. Among the major specifics, we regard the types and character of built environment (especially historic city centers and “socialistic” urban development), “copying” or repeating negative trends in population lifestyle (following trends in population lifestyle in more economically developed countries), minimal ethnical and racial diversity, but also very high level of walkability in the population. The following aim is to enhance positive changes in physical activity behavior in the adult population using the findings on the environment and lifestyle, and using pedometers and the supportive online system www.indares.com.
Czech Republic Photo Codebook