Dr Victoria Palmer

Research Fellow (MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit)

email: Victoria.Palmer@glasgow.ac.uk

Berkeley Square, 99 Berkeley Street, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, G3 7HR

Biography

Victoria Palmer is a research associate in the Complexity in Health Programme at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit. Victoria's research focuses on understanding older adults' physical activity and sedentary behaviour and developing and evaluating interventions to support people to be more active as they get older. She is currently leading the qualitative work on the PACES: Physical Activity, social ConectednESs and healthy ageing project exploring what influences feelings of social connection and levels of physical activity in adults aged 55-75 years old. Victoria is also a core member of the ATTAIN network which aims to develop effective and attainable physical activity interventions, and extend healthy life expectancy in communities that experience health inequalities.

Before joining the Complexity and Health Programme Victoria was a research associate on the Sit Less Move More project, developing and evaluating an intervention to support older adults to sit less, and become more active. She has also worked on projects which sought to understand older people's sedentary patterns and how to support older people to reduce their sedentary time. This included the development of Sit Less, Move More, Feel Good! a short leaflet-based intervention to support older adults to sit less and the Sit Less, Move More, Feel Good! website which hosts the leaflet and associated training materials.

Prior to joining the University of Glasgow Victoria completed her PhD entitled 'The negotiation of physical activity in three-generational families' in 2015 at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Victoria is a sociologist and an experienced qualitative researcher with experience using a wide range of methods including data-led interviews, life history interviews, and participatory methods.

Research interests

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour
Developing and evaluating complex interventions
Sociology of the body, sport, health and illness, family life, ageing
Innovative qualitative and mixed-methods methodologies

Research Grants

BBSRC and MRC Ageing Across the Lifecourse Networks. Breen L (PI), Stathi A, Simpson S, Palmer VJ, Maden-Wilkinson TM, Crone D. Lifelong Physical AcTivity TArgeting INequalities (ATTAIN): A Transformative Network for Healthy Ageing.£199560.26. February 2022 - February 2024.

Chief Scientist Office. Gray CM (PI), Palmer VJ, Wyke S, Blane D, Fitzsimons C, Mutrie N, Hunter R, Maxwell D, Bain F. Sit Less, Move More: Improving sedentary behaviour and physical activity in community-dwelling older adults: development and feasibility testing of a novel technology-supported intervention.£299,167. Sept 2017- May 2021. (Sit Less, Move More)

Scottish Funding Council Global Challenges Research Fund. Palmer VJ (PI), Gray CM, Halliday J, Wight D. Building sustainable capacity to develop and evaluate social and public health interventions: piloting a workshop to train researchers in East Africa. £15,000.Oct 2018 – June 2019.

University of Glasgow: Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Flexible Fund. Palmer VJ (PI), Gray CM. Helping older adults sit less and move more: development of an online platform to support widespread roll-out of a brief intervention. £18,471. October 2018 – March 2019.

ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. Gray CM (PI), Palmer VJ, Wyke S. Intervening on sedentary behaviour in older adults from results to practice. £19,848. Oct 2016 – May 2017.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

Number of items: 14.

2024

Olsen, J. R. et al. (2024) Individual, social and area level factors associated with older people’s walking: analysis of an UK household panel study (Understanding Society). Social Science and Medicine, 358, 117083. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117083) (PMID:39226800)

2023

Dibben, G. O. et al. (2023) Adolescents’ interactive electronic device use, sleep and mental health: a systematic review of prospective studies. Journal of Sleep Research, 32(5), e13899. (doi: 10.1111/jsr.13899) (PMID:37029099)

Purcell, C. , Dibben, G. , Hilton Boon, M. , Matthews, L. , Palmer, V. J., Thomson, M. , Smillie, S. , Simpson, S. A. and Taylor, R. S. (2023) Social network interventions to support cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention in the management of people with heart disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2023(6), CD013820. (doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013820.pub2) (PMID:37378598) (PMCID:PMC10305790)

Bunn, C. et al. (2023) How European Fans in Training (EuroFIT), a lifestyle change program for men delivered in football clubs, achieved its effect: a mixed methods process evaluation embedded in a randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 23, 526. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15419-y) (PMID:36941552) (PMCID:PMC10026416)

2021

Palmer, V. J., Gray, C. M. , Fitzsimons, C., Mutrie, N., Wyke, S. , Der, G. , Chastin, S. F.M. and Skelton, D. A. (2021) Sitting as a moral practice: older adults’ accounts from qualitative interviews on sedentary behaviours. Sociology of Health and Illness, 43(9), pp. 2102-2120. (doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13383) (PMID:34724232)

Palmer, V., Bowness, J. and Tulle, E. (2021) (Re)conceptualising physical activity participation as career. Ageing and Society, 41(4), pp. 936-954. (doi: 10.1017/S0144686X19001430)

2019

Palmer, V. J., Gray, C. M. , Fitzsimons, C. F., Mutrie, N., Wyke, S. , Deary, I. J., Der, G. , Chastin, S. F.M. and Skelton, D. A. (2019) What do older people do when sitting and why? Implications for decreasing sedentary behaviour. Gerontologist, 59(4), pp. 686-697. (doi: 10.1093/geront/gny020) (PMID:29771308) (PMCID:PMC6630262)

2018

Palmer, V. J., Tulle, E. and Bowness, J. (2018) Physical activity and the ageing body. In: Nyman, S. R., Barker, A., Haines, T., Horton, K., Musselwhite, C., Victor, C. R. and Wolff, J. K. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 531-549. ISBN 9783319712901 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-71291-8_26)

Gale, C. R. et al. (2018) The epigenetic clock and objectively measured sedentary and walking behavior in older adults: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. Clinical Epigenetics, 10, 4. (doi: 10.1186/s13148-017-0438-z) (PMID:29321814) (PMCID:PMC5759300)

Palmer, V. J. (2018) Grandparents’ contribution to a family culture of physical activity. Gerontologie et Societe, 40(156), I-XVI.

2016

Bunn, C. and Palmer, V. (2016) Using Bourdieu’s Toolkit to Critique and Improve Social Science Engagement with Physical Activity. In: Bourdieu Study Group Annual Conference 2016, Bristol, England, 4-6 Jul 2016,

2015

Palmer, V. (2015) Keeping it in the family: the generational transmission of physical activity. In: Tulle, E. and Phoenix, C. (eds.) Physical Activity and Sport in Later Life: Critical Perspectives. Series: Global culture and sport series. Palgrave Macmillan: Houndmills. ISBN 9781137429315

Palmer, V., Tulle, E. and Bowness, J. (2015) Neoliberalism in Action? Capturing the Complexities of Sport and Physical Activity Careers. BSA Annual Conference 2015, Glasgow, UK, 15-17 April 2015.