Dr Sarah Audsley

Assistant Professor

School: Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation

Dr Sarah Audsley is a clinical academic specialising in physiotherapy, exercise rehabilitation and behavioural medicine. She completed an NIHR-funded PhD at the University of Nottingham, focusing on physical activity maintenance in older adults following falls prevention exercise programmes. Prior to joining Northumbria University, she held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Nottingham (funded by NIHR Seedcorn) and worked as an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She maintains clinical expertise in musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy, having worked in NHS, private practice and sport settings, and currently serves as a Consultant Physiotherapist for a Primary Care Network in Derby.

At Northumbria University, Sarah delivers pre-registration Physiotherapy programmes and leads the Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioner in Primary Care course. She developed and implemented this course collaboratively with local and national NHS stakeholders, advancing post-registration education in primary care physiotherapy. She has previously received a Teaching Enhancement Award for engaging physiotherapy students as teaching and research partners.

Sarah's current research focus centres on her ORUK fellowship, leading the "Keep Exercising & Stay Steady" (KESS) study, which uses co-design methodology to develop and assess the feasibility of an exercise maintenance intervention for older adults. She serves as second supervisor for a PhD student investigating osteoporosis in stroke, and is co-applicant on the BabyFRED study (Private Physiotherapy Education Foundation) and the Making Every Contact Count Service Evaluation (Northumbria Health Care Trust). She contributes as a researcher to Glasgow Caledonian University's NIHR-funded OPTIMA project and departmental research initiatives. Sarah is a member of the Management of Long-term Conditions, Physical Activity and Exercise for Health Across Lifespan, and Blue Zone Consortium research groups, and represents Northumbria University on the World Health Organization Rehabilitation Alliance.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Dr Audsley's research interests focus on investigating the role of physical activity and behaviour change interventions to improve ageing health and physical function. Dr Audsley has a particular interest in developing complex interventions to encourage people to continue to engage in postive health habits when structured physical activity and behaviour change interventions end. Dr Audsley has specific research expertise in intervention development, mixed feasibility study design and coding interventions for content, delivery and theoretical underpinnings in systematic reviews.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Interventions to Enhance Work Participation in People with Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis including Analysis of Complex Psychological Intervention Components, McParland, J., Booth, L., Dibben, G., Abaraogu, U., Wainwright, E., Demou, E., Williams, L., Flowers, P., Kidd, L., Daniels, J., Patwa, H., Wegrzynek, P., Audsley, S., O’Kane, R., Parchment, A., Ranaldi, H., Walker-Bone, K. May 2026, In: British Journal of Health Psychology
Co-designing an Exercise Maintenance Intervention for Older Adults Exiting Falls Prevention Programmes: A Multi-Stage Stakeholder Consultation Approach, Audsley, S., Adams, N., Barry, G., Court, P., Haridas, S., Harrison , R., Hemmings, A., Laventure, B., Mercer, V., Moore, S., O'Doherty, A., Stanmore, E., Skelton, D. 22 Apr 2026, In: Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine
Behaviour change interventions to promote physical activity in people with intermittent claudication: the OPTIMA systematic review, Abaraogu, U., Dall, P., Seenan, C., Rhodes, S., Gorely, T., McParland, J., Brittenden, J., Anieto, E., Booth, L., Gormal, C., Dearling, J., Fenton, C., Audsley, S., Fairer, K., Bearne, L., Skelton, D. 1 May 2025, In: Health Technology Assessment
Mixed Methods Evaluation of the “Train the Trainer” Model for Delivering Core “Making Every Contact Count” (MECC) Training, Nichol, B., Rodrigues, A., Yee Tang, M., Haste, A., Audsley, S., Robson, C., Harland, J., Haighton, C. 1 Apr 2026, In: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine
'Real world' effectiveness of the Falls Management Exercise (FaME) programme: an implementation study, Orton, E., Audsley, S., Coupland, C., Gladman, J., Iliffe, S., Lafond, N., Logan, P., Masud, T., Skelton, D., Timblin, C., Timmons, S., Ward, D., Kendrick, D. 28 Jun 2021, In: Age and Ageing
A randomised feasibility study assessing an intervention to keep adults physically active after falls management exercise programmes end, Audsley, S., Kendrick, D., Logan, P., Jones, M., Orton, E. Dec 2020, In: Pilot and Feasibility Studies
Keeping adults physically active after Falls Management Exercise (FaME) programmes end: development of a physical activity maintenance intervention, Audsley, S., Kendrick, D., Logan, P., Orton, E. Dec 2021, In: Pilot and Feasibility Studies
Use it or lose it: a qualitative study of the maintenance of physical activity in older adults, Maula, A., LaFond, N., Orton, E., Iliffe, S., Audsley, S., Vedhara, K., Kendrick, D. 12 Dec 2019, In: BMC Geriatrics
'We got more than we expected.' Older people's experiences of falls-prevention exercise interventions and implications for practice; a qualitative study, Lafond, N., Maula, A., Iliffe, S., Vedhara, K., Audsley, S., Kendrick, D., Orton, E. 1 Jul 2019, In: Primary health care research & development
Exploring the ‘train the trainer’ model for delivering Making Every Contact Count (MECC) training at scale: A qualitative study, Nichol, B., Rodrigues, A., Audsley, S., Haste, A., Yee Tang, M., Robson, C., Harland, J., Haighton, C. 1 May 2026, In: British Journal of Health Psychology

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: Keeping people active and behaviour change 2025
Invited talk: Keep Exercising & Stay Steady: Co-design of an exercise maintenance intervention for older adults 2025
Invited talk: Keep Exercising & Stay Steady: In it for the long run. 2025
Invited talk: Keep Exercising & Stay Steady: Co-design & feasibility study of an exercise maintenance intervention for older adults exiting falls prevention exercise programmes 2025
Invited talk: Maintaining Musculoskeletal Health in Older Adults 2019
Invited talk: Keeping Adults Physically Active (KAPA): Intervention development and feasibility trial 2019
Invited talk: Strength, condition and stability exercise for Olympic Weightlifting 2019
Oral presentation: Physical activity profiling in obese older adults with knee osteoarthritis 2015