2025 Allan Donner Lecture: Dr. Robert Petrella
Date: Friday, April 4
Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: PHFM 3015 (Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine) or Zoom (link may be requested at EpiBio@uwo.ca)
Sport Fandom as an Engagement Innovation in Hard-to-Reach Populations: A Cluster RCT to Evaluate a Community-Based Health Behaviour Change Intervention
Robert Petrella
Professor and Head (Chair)
Department of Family Practice
University of British Columbia (UBC)
Professor
School of Kinesiology
University of British Columbia
Professor Emeritus
Centre for Studies in Family Medicine
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University
Short Biography:
Robert Petrella is currently Professor and Head (Chair) of the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he is also Professor of Kinesiology and sports medicine physician lead with the UBC Sport and Exercise Medicine Clinic in the Chan Gunn Pavilion at UBC.
Dr. Petrella is also Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and at Western University, Scientist with several Institutes including the Bone and Joint Institute at Western University, Lawson Health Research Institute, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Dr. Petrella is a staff physician with St. Joseph’s Family Medical Centre in London, Ontario.
Previously, Dr. Petrella was the inaugural Beryl and Richard Ivey Chair in Aging and Rehabilitation at the Parkwood Institute, Board member for the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, President of Blood Pressure Canada (now Hypertension Canada) and Medical Director of the Canadian Center for Activity and Ageing.
Dr. Petrella's research broadly includes chronic disease prevention, healthy aging, team-based primary care with a focus on lifestyle interventions and hard-to-reach, vulnerable and marginalized communities. He has led international research teams and developed curriculum and innovative technologies to support implementation of research evidence to practice to improve the lives of all Canadians.
Abstract:
Obesity is a relapsing, progressive chronic disease that significantly contributes to the burden of other chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Traditional weight loss and health behaviour change programs often fail to engage men, who are both more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviours and less likely to seek preventive healthcare. The Hockey Fans in Training (Hockey FIT®) program was developed as a novel, gender-sensitized intervention leveraging sport fandom to engage middle-aged men with overweight or obesity in sustainable lifestyle changes.
This lecture presents findings from a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of Hockey FIT in improving weight loss, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity, dietary habits, and other health indicators. Conducted across 42 community-based sites in Canada and the U.S., the study randomized sites to either the Hockey FIT intervention or a wait-list control. The 12-month intervention consisted of an initial three-month active phase, followed by a nine-month minimally supported maintenance phase. Key results demonstrated significant improvements in weight loss, cardiorespiratory fitness, systolic blood pressure, physical activity, as well as a host of other health indicators. High engagement and retention was also achieved, despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Process and economic evaluations further explored intervention acceptability, fidelity, adaptations, and cost-effectiveness.
Beyond its clinical impact, this study highlights the potential of sport fandom-based health interventions to reach hard-to-engage populations. Next steps have included program adaptations for women (HFIT-Women) and newcomers to Canada (FIT for Newcomers), underscoring the broader applicability of this community-based approach to public health.
About Allan Donner, PhD FRSC:
Allan Donner, PhD, FRSC, is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University and a former Director of Biostatistics at Robarts Clinical Trials, Inc. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba and obtained his Doctorate degree in Statistics from Harvard University, followed by four years at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School. He served as Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western from 1987 to 2003.
Allan Donner's methodological research includes extensive contributions to the design and analysis of clinical trials, including many publications in leading journals, frequent invited presentations, and service on numerous Data Safety and Monitoring Committees. His interest in cluster randomization trials has led to his participation in several perinatal epidemiology trials sponsored by the World Health Organization and trials of vaccination strategies designed to prevent typhoid and cholera in developing countries, as sponsored by the International Vaccine Institute. Allan Donner is co-author (with Neil Klar, PhD) of the book “Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research” (Wiley, 2000), the first text in this field that focused exclusively on randomized trials conducted in the health sciences.
Over the course of his career, Allan Donner has been a member of several Health Canada Advisory Committees including the Committee on Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology. He is currently a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American College of Epidemiology and the Royal Society of Canada.
View the complete Seminar Series Listing. View information about our Named Seminars.
View the event poster.
