Tiago Barreira

Ph.D.
Undergraduate Director
Associate Professor

Over the course of his career, Dr. Barreira has developed into a researcher with expertise in measurement and evaluation. He has worked both with objective measurement of human physical behaviors (i.e., physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB) and sleep), more specifically in the use of pedometers and accelerometers. He began his training in physical activity measurement and research started with Dr. Minsoo Kang, who is a measurement and evaluation expert, during his Ph.D. at Middle Tennessee State University. During his Ph.D. program, he had the opportunity to develop statistical skills in the classroom, going above and beyond the requirements. His training continued under the supervision of Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk and Dr. Tudor Locke at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. During his years as a postdoc, he had the opportunity to help develop the methods and conduct data quality control of The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE). Currently, at Syracuse University Dr. Barreira is the director of the Kinesmetrics Laboratory and the principal investigator in several studies related to reliability and validity of physical behavior and body composition measurement tools. He is part of numerous collaborative projects with faculty at SU and other institutions around the world. He also serves as the biostatistician in NIH and non-profit funded projects.

Education

Ph.D. Human Performance (Kinesmetrics Concentration), Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) 2010

M.S. Exercise Science, MTSU 2006

B.A. Physical Education (Exercise Science Concentration), University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW), 2003

B.S. Business Administration (Finance Concentration), UNCW, 2003

Specialization

Human physical behaviors (physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) measurement; aging, physical behaviors, and health; fitness and health; physical behaviors and health; body composition; statistics, and research methodology.

Research Focus

Dr. Barreira’s research is focused in these areas:

  1. Reliability, validity, and sensitivity of physiological measurement tools.
  2. Use of cadence (steps/min) as a measure of physical activity levels.
  3. Validity and reliability of sedentary behavior and sleep measurement tools.
  4. Children’s physical behaviors and obesity risk.
  5. Racial disparities in body composition and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Statistical Expertise

Dr. Barreira has served as biostatistician in numerous projects including NIH funded grants. Dr. Barreira is able to provide statistical expertise in: Generalized linear models (linear regression, logistic regression, Poisson regression), discriminant analysis, reliability and validity testing, model development, cluster analysis, multi-level modeling, GENOVA, SAS, SPSS, and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis.

Courses

Systemic Physiology & Exercise

Research Methods in Exercise & Sport Science

Measurement and Evaluation in Exercise Science

Physical Activity and Public Health

Obesity and Body Composition

Recent Publications

  • Reid, R.E.E., Granat, M., Barreira, T.V., Haugan, C.D., Reid, .G., & Andersen, R.R., (2019). Week and weekend day cadence patterns long-term post-bariatric surgery. Obesity Surgery, 29(10):3271-3276.
  • Barreira T.V., Broyles, S.T., Tudor-Locke, C., Chaput, , J.-P., Fogelholm, M., G. Hu, G., et al (2019). Epidemiological transition in physical activity and sedentary time in children. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 16(7),518-524.
  • Santos, C., Reyes, A., Moura, A.C., Moura, M.A., Pereira, S., Gomes, T.N., et al. (2018) A multilevel analysis of individual- and school-level correlates of physical fitness in children. Annals of Human Biology, 45(6-8),470-477.
  • Columna, L., Dillon, S.R., Dolphin, M., Streete, D.A., Hodge, S.R., Myers, B., et al. (2019), Physical activity participation among families of children with visual impairments and blindness. Disability and Rehabilitation, 41(3),357-365.
  • Larouche R., Mire E.F., Belanger K., Barreira T.V., Chaput J.P., Fogelholm M., et al. (2019). Relationships between outdoor time, physical activity, sedentary behavior and obesity in children: a 12-country. Pediatric Exercise Science, 31(1), 118-129.