Dr. Paul Collings joined the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong in May 2023. He focuses on developing new information about the interplay of genetics, lifestyles and physical fitness in terms of chronic disease risk, by using data from large and well-phenotyped prospective cohort studies, such as the UK and China Kadoorie Biobanks.

Paul has a BSc in Sports Science from the University of Portsmouth and a MSc in Sport and Health Sciences from the University of Exeter. Paul graduated top at both institutions. He also has an MPhil in Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge, a course on which he later taught. Paul completed his doctorate with the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Professor Ulf Ekelund and Dr Soren Brage. During his PhD, Paul was the beneficiary of a Charter Graduate Scholarship from Homerton College.

After completing his PhD, Paul remained in the MRC Epidemiology Unit as a Career Development Fellow. He then assumed the role of Research Fellow within the Bradford Institute for Health Research, analysing and publishing data from the flagship Born in Bradford cohort. He remained in the same institute (via an affiliation with the University of York) after securing a British Heart Foundation Immediate Postdoctoral Basic Science Research Fellowship. Across these various positions, Paul investigated the combined associations of sleep duration, sedentariness and intensity-specific physical activity with non-communicable disease risk markers in pregnant women and children. Paul subsequently worked as a Consultant Researcher for the Luxembourg Institute of Health. He led the analysis of accelerometer data collected within their nationally representative cohort, using the data to investigate the associations of 24-hour time-use with cardiometabolic health markers in adults.

Paul has enjoyed several long-term international collaborations and has secured competitive research funding, notably from the British Heart Foundation and EU LifeCycle Project.

1. Collings, PJ, Backes, A, Aguayo, GA et al. Substituting device-measured sedentary time with alternative 24-hour movement behaviours: compositional associations with adiposity and cardiometabolic risk in the ORISCAV-LUX 2 study. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2023; 15(70)
2. Collings, PJ, Backes, A, Aguayo, GA et al. Device-measured physical activity and sedentary time in a national sample of Luxembourg residents: the ORISCAV-LUX 2 study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2022; 19:161
3. Collings, PJ, Grøntved, A, Jago, R, et al. Cross-sectional and prospective associations of sleep duration and bedtimes with adiposity and obesity risk in 15810 youth from 11 international cohorts. Pediatr Obes. 2022; 17(4):e12873
4. Collings PJ. Independent associations of sleep timing, duration and quality with adiposity and weight status in a national sample of adolescents: the UK Millennium Cohort Study. J Sleep Res. 2021; 31:e13436
5. Collings PJ, Dogra SA, Costa S, et al. Objectively-measured sedentary time and physical activity in a bi-ethnic sample of young children: variation by socio-demographic, temporal and perinatal factors. BMC Public Health. 2020; 20(1):109
6. Collings PJ, Farrar D, Gibson J, et al. Associations of pregnancy physical activity with maternal cardiometabolic health, neonatal delivery outcomes and body composition in a biethnic cohort of 7305 mother-child pairs: the Born in Bradford study. Sports Med. 2020; 50:615–628
7. Collings PJ, Westgate K, Väistö J, et al. Cross-sectional associations of objectively-measured physical activity and sedentary time with body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness in mid-childhood: The PANIC Study. Sports Med. 2017; 47:769–780
8. Collings PJ, Brage S, Bingham DD, et al. Physical activity, sedentary time and fatness in a biethnic sample of young children. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016; 49(5)
9. Collings PJ, Wijndaele K, Corder K, et al. Levels and patterns of objectively-measured physical activity volume and intensity distribution in UK adolescents: the ROOTS study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2014; 11(1)
10. Collings PJ, Brage S, Ridgway CL, et al. Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013; 97(5):1020-1028