Gregory Knell, PhD
Assistant Professor, UTHealth Center for Pediatric Population Health
Research Faculty, Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine
Gregory.Knell@uth.tmc.edu
Dr. Knell received his Masters in Kinesiology from the University of North Texas, his PhD in Epidemiology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health in Austin, and an NCI Cancer Education and Career Development Program Post-doctoral fellowship at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston.
Dr. Knell’s research broadly focuses on the distribution, determinants, and health-outcomes associated with physical activity and other physical behaviors (sleep and sedentary behaviors). This includes understanding what factors make people more physically active, and what are the health implications of being physically [in]active. Dr. Knell holds a joint research faculty appointment at the Children’s Health Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. There, he works with clinicians to discover better and more innovative ways to prevent and treat sports-related injuries. This involves studying risk factors for sports-related injuries and developing evidence-based best clinical practices for the management and treatment of injuries. Through this work, Dr. Knell has developed predictive algorithms using vestibular and ocular motor assessment measures to estimate clinical recovery time following a sport-related concussion. This provides the clinician and patient a timeline to recovery, which can be useful in providing patient specific treatment options. He is currently engaged in a study on the effect of physical behaviors (physical activity and sleep) occurring during recovery from a concussion among a group of adolescent athletes.
Dr. Knell will soon begin a longitudinal cohort study of adolescent athletes to understand the sport-related injury risk factors and the short- and long- term health implications of suffering sport-related injury during adolescence. This study will be the first longitudinal cohort study with this level of breadth and depth of understanding on sport-related injuries during adolescence.
Recent Publications
Physical Activity, Sleep, and Sedentary Behavior among Successful Long-Term Weight Loss Maintainers: Findings from a U.S. National Study.
(Knell, G., Li, Q., Morales-Marroquin, E., Drope, J., Gabriel, K. P., & Shuval, K. (2021). International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(11), 5557.
Y-PATHS: A conceptual framework for classifying the timing, how, and setting of youth physical activity.
(Szeszulski, J., Lanza, K., Dooley, E., Johnson, A. M., Knell, G., Walker, T. J., Craig, D. W., Robertson, M. C., Salvo, D., & Kohl III, H. W. (2021). Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 18(3), 310-317)
Prevalence and likelihood of meeting sleep, physical activity, and screen-time guidelines among US youth
Knell, G., Durand, C. P., Kohl, H. W., 3rd, Wu, I., & Pettee Gabriel, K. (2019). JAMA pediatrics, 173(4), 387–389.
Long term weight loss and metabolic health in adults concerned with maintaining or losing weight: findings from NHANES
Knell, G., Li, Q., Pettee Gabriel, K., & Shuval, K. (2018). Mayo Clinic proceedings, 93(11), 1611–1616.
