Professor Stacy Clemes

Professor Stacy Clemes has an undergraduate degree and PhD in Human Biology from Loughborough University. Following the completion of her PhD in 2004, Stacy was employed as a Research Associate in the Department of Human Sciences at Loughborough University. It was during this time that she began to lead research examining pedometer-determined activity levels and patterns in adults. She was employed as a Lecturer in Human Biology at Loughborough University in 2007, and moved to the new School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences in 2009. Stacy was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2013, Reader in 2017, and Professor in 2022.

In 2007, Stacy completed a postdoctoral training course in the US on Physical Activity and Public Health Research, jointly organised and hosted by the University of South Carolina and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stacy’s research focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of pragmatic behaviour change programmes, predominantly designed to encourage people to sit less and move more. She has investigated the impact of sit-stand desks in the classroom and workplace, along with family and community-based activity interventions. Following the pandemic, her research has focused on the effect of remote and hybrid working – and their potential influence on workers’ activity levels, sitting time, sleep and dietary behaviours.

For the past decade, Stacy has led a large programme of research, focusing on hard-to-reach and at-risk occupational groups – particularly commercial drivers. This research led to the development of the Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (SHIFT) – a multicomponent programme for HGV drivers designed to promote physical activity and positive lifestyle changes. Stacy is passionate about promoting health and wellbeing, and hopes the SHIFT programme, and other initiatives they are working on, will have a long-term positive impact on commercial drivers’ health.

Stacy presents her inaugural lecture entitled: 'SHIFTing Gears to improve health: can we support professional drivers to sit less and move more?'

Stacy’s research focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of pragmatic behaviour change programmes, predominantly designed to encourage people to sit less and move more. Her earlier research focused on walking-based activities in adults, addressing questions such as ‘how many steps per day are needed?’

Stacy’s more recent research has investigated the impact of sit-stand desks in the classroom and workplace environments, along with family and community-based activity interventions. She has conducted research in novice runners, examining the impact of the popular Couch to 5k beginners running programme on health and fitness outcomes, and injury risk. 

Following the pandemic, a large part of Stacy’s research has focused on the effect of remote and hybrid working on workers’ activity levels, sitting time, sleep and dietary behaviours.

For the past decade, Stacy has been leading a large programme of research, focusing on hard-to-reach and at-risk occupational groups – particularly commercial drivers. This research led to the development of the “Structured Health Intervention For Truckers” (SHIFT) – a multicomponent programme for HGV drivers designed to promote physical activity and positive lifestyle changes. Following positive findings from an evaluation of the SHIFT programme, Stacy and her team have worked with logistics operator partners to translate the SHIFT programme into a driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) module. In addition to making ‘SHIFT’ widely available for all UK/international HGV drivers, Stacy and team are keen to modify the programme to suit other commercial drivers.

Stacy and colleagues are also undertaking research into commercial drivers’ sleep, and current driver medical provisions for both bus and HGV drivers.  Stacy and her colleagues hope their work will have long-term, positive impacts on commercial drivers’ health, facilitated by policy-level changes in driver training and driver medical provisions – leading to improvements in road safety for everyone.

Selected recent research projects and sources of funding

• Bus Driver Enhanced Medicals. Funded by Transport for London (2024-2025). PI: Prof Stacy Clemes.
• Promoting the health of our commercial drivers: a vehicle to improve road safety?  Funded by the ESRC Midlands Graduate School DTP (matched funded Collaborative Studentship) (2024-2028). PI: Dr James King.
• The co-creation of a lifestyle health behaviour intervention in desk-based remote workers. Funded by the MRC Public Health Intervention Development Scheme (2024-2025). PI: Dr Elizabeth Stamp.
• Implementation of a health promotion training programme for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers within the UK logistics sector. Funded by The Colt Foundation (2022-2025). PI: Prof Stacy Clemes.
• The co-development of a comprehensive sleep management programme in commercial drivers. Funded by the MRC Public Health Intervention Development Scheme (2021-2022). PI: Dr Iuliana Hartescu.
• A three-arm cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the SMArT Work & Life intervention for reducing daily sitting time in office workers. Funded by the NIHR Public Health Research Programme (2018-2021). PI: Prof Charlotte Edwardson.
• A cluster randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (The SHIFT Study). Funded by the NIHR Public Health Research Programme (2017-2021). PI: Prof Stacy Clemes.
• Stand Out in Class: Restructuring the classroom environment to reduce sedentary behaviour – a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. Funded by the NIHR Public Health Research Programme (2016-2018). PI: Prof Stacy Clemes.

Media engagement

Stacy is passionate about promoting the health of the public through the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviours. She is happy to speak about any aspect of her research to the media, previously undertaking interviews for BBC Breakfast, BBC Health: Truth or Scare, BBC HealthCheckUK, Health Check on the BBC’s World Service, ITV Tonight, BBC Radio 5; and contributing to several newspaper articles for The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times, i news, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, as examples.

National and International Committees/Working groups

• Member of the ‘Driving Better Health Expert Panel’, a national Expert Group on Drivers’ Health initiating the set-up of an industry-led campaign to promote and improve the health and wellbeing of professional drivers (2023 – onwards).
• Member of the ‘Physical Activity ‘expert rapid review’ service for public and professional materials and resources - Sedentary Behaviour’, a virtual academic, medical and practitioner network which scrutinises UK public or professional facing materials from a scientific and evidence-based view (2020).
• Member of the Sedentary Behaviour Expert Working Group for the 2018/19 UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines review.
• Member of the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Research Awards Committee (May 2011 – May 2014).

Journal, conference abstract and grant reviews

• Reviewer for a number of journals including: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Safety and Health at Work, International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Preventive Medicine, Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, BMC Public Health, Annals of Human Biology, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Public Health Nutrition, American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• Abstract reviewer for the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity’s (ISBNPA) annual meeting (2008 - present).
• Abstract reviewer for the 7th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress (2018, London)
• Member of the Programme Committee for the 6th International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (2016, Thailand)
• Grant reviewer for the NIHR’s Public Health Research programme; MRC; ESRC; Health Research Board, Ireland; Diabetes UK; The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); the Swiss National Science Foundation; Wellcome Trust; British Heart Foundation; TrygFonden, Denmark; The Colt Foundation.
• Member of the international Scientific Evaluation Committee for the EU Joint Programming Initiative "A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life" funding call: "Effectiveness of existing policies for lifestyle interventions – Policy Evaluation Network (PEN)” (March – May, 2017).

Editorial board and funding panel membership

• Associate Editor: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (January 2020 – 2024)
• Guest Editor: Physiological Measurement, ICAMPAM 2013 Focus Issue (November 2013 – June 2014)
• Associate Editor: BMC Public Health (June 2013 – August 2017)
• ESRC Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) - Loughborough University Health & Wellbeing Pathway lead

• Edwardson CL, Maylor BD, Biddle SJH, Clarke-Cornwell AM, Clemes SA, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Granat MH, Gray LJ, Hadjiconstantinou M, Healy GN, Wilson P, Munir F, Yates T, Eborall H. (2023). Participant and workplace champion experiences of an intervention designed to reduce sitting time in desk-based workers: SMART work & life. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2023 Nov 30;20(1):142. DOI: 10.1186/s12966-023-01539-6.
• Creaser AV, Bingham DD, Bennett HAJ, Costa S, Clemes SA (2023). The development of a family-based wearable intervention, using behaviour change and co-design approaches: Move and Connect. Public Health 217:54-64. DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2023.01.018
• Sherry AP, Clemes SA, Chen YL, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Guest A, King JA, Rowlands AV, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Varela-Mato V, Hartescu I (2023). Sleep variability in UK long distance heavy goods vehicle drivers. J Occup Environ Med. 1;65(1):67-73. DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002687
• Ruettger K, Clemes SA, Chen YL, Edwardson C, Guest A, Gilson N, Gray L, Johnson V, Paine N, Sherry A, Sayyah M, Troughton J, Varela-Mato V, Yates T, King J, (2022). Drivers with and without obesity respond differently to a multi-component health intervention in heavy goods vehicle drivers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 19(23):15546. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192315546.
• Guest AJ, Paine NJ, Chen YL, Chalkley A, Munir F, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Johnson V, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Sherry A, Troughton J, Varela-Mato V, Yates T, King J, Clemes SA (2022). The Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (SHIFT) cluster randomised controlled trial: A mixed methods process evaluation. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 19, 79. DOI: 10.1186/s12966-022-01316-x
• Edwardson CL, Biddle SJH, Clemes SA, Davies MJ, Dunstan DW, Eborall H, Granat MH, Gray LJ, Healy GN, Jaicim NB, Lawton S, Maylor B, Munir F, Richardson G, Yates T, Clarke-Cornwell A (2022). Effectiveness of an intervention for reducing sitting time and improving health in office workers: three arm cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 378:e069288. DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2021-069288
• Clemes SA, Varela-Mato V, Bodicoat DH, Brookes CL, Chen YL, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Guest AJ, Johnson V, Munir F, Paine NJ, Richardson G, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Sherry A, Suazo Di Paola A, Troughton J, Yates T, King J (2022). The effectiveness of the Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (SHIFT): A cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT). BMC Medicine, 20:195. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02372-7
• Stevinson C, Plateau CR, Plunkett S, Fitzpatrick E, Ojo M, Miller M, Clemes SA (2022). Adherence and health-related outcomes of beginner running programs: a 10-week observational study. Res Q Exerc Sport, 93(1):87-95. DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2020.1799916
• Ruettger K, Varela-Mato V, Chen YL, Edwardson C, Guest A, Gilson N, Gray L, Paine N, Sherry A, Sayyah M, Yates T, King J, Clemes SA (2022). Physical activity, sedentary time and cardiometabolic health in Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers: a cross-sectional analysis. J Occup Environ Med. 1;64(4):e217-e223. DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002484
• Sherry AP, Clemes SA, Chen YL, Edwardson CL, Gray LJ, Guest A, King JA, Rowlands AV, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Varela-Mato V, Hartescu I (2021). Sleep duration and sleep efficiency in UK long distance heavy goods vehicle drivers. Occup Environ Med, Feb;79(2):109-115. DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2021-107643
• Guest A, Clemes SA, King J, Chen Y-L, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Sherry A, Varela-Mato V, Paine N (2021). Attenuated Cardiovascular Reactivity is Related to Higher Anxiety and Fatigue Symptoms in Truck Drivers. Psychophysiology, 00:e13872. DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13872
• Longman D, Shaw C, Varela-Mato V, Sherry A, Ruettger K, Sayyah M, Guest A, Chen Y, Paine N, King J, Clemes SA (2021). Time in nature associated with decreased fatigue in UK truck drivers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 18(6), 3158. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18063158
• Guest A, Chen Y-L, Pearson N, King J, Paine N, Clemes SA (2020). Cardiometabolic risk factors and mental health status among truck drivers: A systematic review. BMJ Open, 10:e038993. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038993
• Clemes SA, Bingham DD, Pearson N, Chen Y-L, Edwardson C, McEachan RRC, Tolfrey K, Cale L, Richardson G, Fray M, Altunkaya J, Bandelow S, Jaicim NB, Salmon J, Dunstan DW, Barber SE, (2020). Stand Out in Class: Restructuring the classroom environment to reduce sitting time – findings from a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 17:55. DOI: 10.1186/s12966-020-00958-z
• Clemes SA, Varela-Mato V, Munir F, Edwardson CL, Chen YL, Hamer M, Gray LJ, Jaicim NB, Richardson G, Johnson V, Troughton J, Yates T, King J, (2019). A cluster randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (The SHIFT Study): Study Protocol. BMJ Open, 24;9(11):e030175. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030175
• Varela-Mato V, Caddick N, King JA, Johnson V, Edwardson C, Yates TE, Stensel DJ, Daly H, Nimmo MA, Clemes SA, (2018). The impact of a novel Structured Health Intervention for Truckers (SHIFT) on physical activity and cardio-metabolic risk factors. J Occup Environ Med. 60(4):368-376. DOI: 10.1097/jom.0000000000001128
• Varela-Mato V, Caddick N, King JA, Nimmo MA, Yates TE, Stensel DJ, Clemes SA, (2018). A Structured Health Intervention for Truckers (SHIFT): A process evaluation of a pilot health intervention in a transport company. J Occup Environ Med. 60(4):377-385. DOI: 10.1097/jom.0000000000001258