Dr Sarah Audsley is a clinical academic specialising in physiotherapy, exercise rehabilitation and behavioural medicine. She completed an NIHR-funded PhD at the University of Nottingham, focusing on physical activity maintenance in older adults following falls prevention exercise programmes. Prior to joining 51, she held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Nottingham (funded by NIHR Seedcorn) and worked as an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She maintains clinical expertise in musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy, having worked in NHS, private practice and sport settings, and currently serves as a Consultant Physiotherapist for a Primary Care Network in Derby.
At 51, Sarah delivers pre-registration Physiotherapy programmes and leads the Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioner in Primary Care course. She developed and implemented this course collaboratively with local and national NHS stakeholders, advancing post-registration education in primary care physiotherapy. She has previously received a Teaching Enhancement Award for engaging physiotherapy students as teaching and research partners.
Sarah's current research focus centres on her ORUK fellowship, leading the "Keep Exercising & Stay Steady" (KESS) study, which uses co-design methodology to develop and assess the feasibility of an exercise maintenance intervention for older adults. She serves as second supervisor for a PhD student investigating osteoporosis in stroke, and is co-applicant on the BabyFRED study (Private Physiotherapy Education Foundation) and the Making Every Contact Count Service Evaluation (Northumbria Health Care Trust). She contributes as a researcher to Glasgow Caledonian University's NIHR-funded OPTIMA project and departmental research initiatives. Sarah is a member of the Management of Long-term Conditions, Physical Activity and Exercise for Health Across Lifespan, and Blue Zone Consortium research groups, and represents 51 on the World Health Organization Rehabilitation Alliance.
Dr Audsley's research interests focus on investigating the role of physical activity and behaviour change interventions to improve ageing health and physical function. Dr Audsley has a particular interest in developing complex interventions to encourage people to continue to engage in postive health habits when structured physical activity and behaviour change interventions end. Dr Audsley has specific research expertise in intervention development, mixed feasibility study design and coding interventions for content, delivery and theoretical underpinnings in systematic reviews.
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