Dr Karen Hind

Associate Professor

PhD, FHEA

Affiliations
Affiliation	Room number	Telephone
Associate Professor in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Biography

I am an Associate Professor in Sport and Exercise Sciences, Department Chair of the Board of Examiners and Chair of the Faculty SS&H Ethics Committee.

My research evaluates imaging applications for bone and body composition assessment. This research informs best practice guidance for densitometry in athletes and clinical populations, and has established the first DXA reference ranges for visceral fat mass. My work in this field also includes writing the recent British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) guidelines for the Application of DXA in sport science. I have served on Board of Directors for the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) which is the global organisation for excellence in densitometry and I am the current Chair of the ISCD Body Composition Education Committee.

Another major focus of my research is current and retired athlete health. Specific topics include bone health and physique assessment (underpinned by imaging methodological work outlined above), the prevention and management of sports injuries and developing evidence-based models for athlete health in retirement.

I lead the first independent study into the health of retired professional and community-level rugby players (UK Rugby Health Project) and co- lead the Global Rugby Health Research Network of researchers from over 9 countries. This research seeks to improve understanding of the short and long term risks from injury in rugby, identifying intervention strategies, with the overall objective of improving player welfare. A major focus is concussion injury and this work contributes to the Wolfson Brain, Body and Behaviour Challenge Academy. Our interdisciplinary research programme into concussion and post concussion syndrome addresses causes, mechanisms, and solutions.

I provide consultancy in the sport and exercise, and imaging fields, and enjoy engaging with developing and established SMEs, and global companies. Current external partnerships include GE Healthcare, My Sports Wellbeing, Conka Elite and Newcastle Falcons.

Postgraduate Students

I welcome interest and applications for postgraduate study in areas relating to the above research.

Specific projects available in 2022:

Clinical utility of total body DXA scans for the prediction of bone mineral density at the lumbar spine and hip in athletes
External impact loading and body composition
Acute and long term sub-concussion biomarkers

Current postgraduate programmes of research: DXA methodologies -body composition and sports performance - visceral fat - load monitoring and recovery in sport - concussion, sub concussion and post concussion syndrome - female athlete triad and RED-S - retired athletes. Recent/current cross-departmental projects include collaborations with Archaeology, Biosciences, Computer Sciences and Psychology.

Research interests

DXA and QCT imaging
Bone health
Athlete health
Body composition and visceral fat
Sport injuries
Concussion

Research groups

Healthy Communities

Awarded Grants

2020: CoreScanTM Visceral Adipose Tissue for Cardiometabolic Risk Stratification & Evaluation and Practical Utility of the Total Body-Less Head Application(£134873.12 from )

Esteem Indicators

2020: Associate Member of the Sports Performance Research Institute of New Zealand (SPRINZ):
2020: Chair of the ISCD Body Composition Education Committee:
2020: Co-Lead of the SPRINZ Rugby Codes Interdisciplinary Research Group:
2019: Board of Directors, International Society for Clinical Densitometry:
2018: Adjunct Associate Professor. School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin:
2018: Chair of the ISCD UK-Ireland Panel:
2011: Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University:

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

Medical and health research topics:
Public policy, health and well-being:

Publications

Chapter in book

Hind K (Accepted). Bone Health in Athletes. In Fractures in Sport. Robertson, G & Maffulli, N Springer.
Hind, K. (2022). Application of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In Sport and Exercise Physiology Testing Guidelines: Volume I - Sport Testing The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences Guide. Davison, R. Smith, P., Hopker, J. Price, M. Hettinga, F. Tew, G. & Bottoms, L. London: Routledge. 1.
Forsyth, Jacky & Hind, Karen (2018). Bone Health and the Exercising Female. In The Exercising Female: Science and Its Application. Forsyth, Jacky & Roberts, Claire-Marie Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. 85-99.

Journal Article

Supervision students

Staff profile