Staff profile

Tessa uses approaches from medical anthropology, public health and epidemiology to investigate everyday physical activity practices and their relationships with health and wellbeing . She is particularly interested in using ethnographic methods to explore and improve the impact of interventions to promote walking for leisure and travel. She leads the Department of Anthropology’s Physical Activity Lab, a group of postdoctoral researchers and PhD students using a range of methods, including accelerometry, in a diverse set of anthropological projects around everyday physical activity.

Tessa currently leads ethnographic studies evaluating the impact of social prescribing for people with type 2 diabetes, policies to promote active school travel in Healthy New Towns, and policies to promote healthy eating practices for children in London using go-along methods. Each of these studies is part of large multi and inter-disciplinary projects that aim ultimately to improve the delivery of effective interventions to reduce inequalities in health. Two are funded by the National Institute for Health Research and one by the School for Public Health Research.

Tessa currently supervises PhD students researching the rise of organisations that promote physical activity alongside volunteering, disentangling the effects of sex and gender on physical activity, and examining the role of community gardening in social prescribing.

• Walking and walking groups
• Using ethnography to inform interventions
• Understanding the place of physical activities in everyday lives
• Evolutionary perspectives on physical activity
• The health of migrant populations

• Anthropology of Health

Authored book

• Pollard, T.M. (2008). Western Diseases: An Evolutionary Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter in book

• Pollard, T.M. & Ice, G.H. (2007). Measuring hormonal variation in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis: cortisol. In Measuring stress in humans: a practical guide for the field. Ice, G.H. & James, G.D. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 122-158.

Edited book

• Pollard, T.M. & Hyatt, S.B. (1999). Sex, gender and health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Edited Journal

• Pollard, T.M., Rousham, E.K. & Colls, R. (2011). Intergenerational and familial approaches to obesity and related conditions. Annals of Human Biology, 38 (4): Informa Healthcare.

Journal Article

• Pollard, Tessa, Gibson, Kate, Griffith, Bethan, Jeffries, Jayne & Moffatt, Suzanne (2023). The implementation and impact of a social prescribing intervention: an ethnographic exploration. British Journal of General Practice
• Moffatt, Suzanne, Wildman, John, Pollard, Tessa M, Gibson, Kate, Wildman, Josephine M, O’Brien, Nicola, Griffith, Bethan, Morris, Stephanie L, Moloney, Eoin, Jeffries, Jayne, Pearce, Mark & Mohammed, Wael (2023). Impact of a social prescribing intervention in North East England on adults with type 2 diabetes: the SPRING_NE multimethod study. Public Health Research 11(2).
• Lawlor, ER, Ellis, K, Adams, J, Jago, R, Foley, L, Morris, SL, Pollard, TM, Summerbell, C, Cummins, S, Forde, H, Foubister, C, Xiao, C & Panter, J (2023). Stakeholders’ experiences of what works in planning and implementing environmental interventions to promote active travel: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis. Transport Reviews 43(3): 478-501.
• Griffith, B, Pollard, TM, Gibson, K, Jeffries, J & Moffatt, S (2023). Constituting link working through choice and care: an ethnographic account of front-line social prescribing. Sociology of Health and Illness 45(2): 279-297.
• Marley, Catherine L., Pollard, Tessa M., Barton, Robert A. & Street, Sally E. (2022). A systematic review of sex differences in rough and tumble play across non-human mammals. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 76(12): 158.
• Morris, S.L., Lawlor, E.R., Foley, L., Summerbell, C., Panter, J., Adams, J., Jago, R. & Pollard, T.M. (2022). Children's experiences of the journey between home and school: A qualitative synthesis using meta-ethnography. Health & Place 76: 102819.
• Gibson, K, Moffatt, S & Pollard, TM (2022). ‘He called me out of the blue’ An ethnographic exploration of contrasting temporalities in a social prescribing intervention. Sociology of Health & Illness 44(7): 1149-1166.
• Morris, Stephanie L., Wildman, Josephine M., Gibson, Kate, Moffatt, Suzanne & Pollard, Tessa (2022). Managing disruption at a distance: Unequal experiences of people living with long-term conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Science & Medicine 302: 114963.
• McGuire, L., Morris, S.L. & Pollard, T.M. (2022). Community gardening and wellbeing: The understandings of organisers and their implications for gardening for health. Health & Place 75: 102773.
• Morris, Stephanie L., Gibson, Kate, Wildman, Josephine M., Griffith, Bethan, Moffatt, Suzanne & Pollard, Tessa M. (2022). Social prescribing during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of service providers’ and clients’ experiences. BMC Health Services Research 22(1): 258.
• Wagnild, Janelle M. & Pollard, Tessa M. (2022). Socioeconomic correlates of sedentary time during pregnancy among women at risk of gestational diabetes in the UK. Journal of Biosocial Science 54(5): 876-887.
• Wildman, JM, Morris, SL, Pollard, TM, Gibson, K & Moffatt, S (2022). “I wouldn't survive it, as simple as that” Syndemic vulnerability among people living with chronic non-communicable disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health 2: 100032.
• Gibson, K., Pollard, T. M. & Moffatt, S. (2021). Social prescribing and classed inequality: A journey of upward health mobility? Social Science & Medicine 280: 114037.
• Wagnild, J. M. & Pollard, T. M. (2021). How is television time linked to cardiometabolic health in adults? A critical systematic review of the evidence for an effect of watching television on eating, movement, affect and sleep. BMJ Open 11: e040739.
• Pollard, TM, Guell, C & Morris, SL (2020). Communal therapeutic mobility in group walking: a meta-ethnography. Social Science and Medicine 262: 113241.
• Beasley, JM, Wagnild, JM Pollard, TM, Roberts, TR & Akhter, N (2020). Effectiveness of diet and physical activity interventions among Chinese-origin populations living in high income countries: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 20: 1019.
• Tupper, E, Atkinson, S & Pollard, TM (2020). Doing more with movement: constituting healthy publics in a movement volunteering programme. Palgrave Communications 6: 94.
• Wagnild, JM & Pollard, TM (2020). “Sit yourself down” women’s experiences of negotiating physical activity during pregnancy. Qualitative Health Research 30(7): 1072-1082.
• Wagnild, JM & Pollard, TM (2020). Associations Between Television Time and activPAL-Measured Duration and Pattern of Sedentary Time Among Pregnant Women at Risk of Gestational Diabetes in the UK. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 17(4): 471-474.
• Morris, Stephanie, Guell, Cornelia & Pollard, Tessa M. (2019). Group walking as a “lifeline” Understanding the place of outdoor walking groups in women's lives. Social Science & Medicine 238: 112489.
• Wagnild, Janelle M., Hinshaw, Kim & Pollard, Tessa M. (2019). Associations of sedentary time and self-reported television time during pregnancy with incident gestational diabetes and plasma glucose levels in women at risk of gestational diabetes in the UK. BMC Public Health 19(1): 575.
• Moffatt, Suzanne, Wildman, John, Pollard, Tessa M, Penn, Linda, O’Brien, Nicola, Pearce, Mark S & Wildman, Josephine M (2019). Evaluating the impact of a community-based social prescribing intervention on people with type 2 diabetes in North East England: mixed-methods study protocol. BMJ Open 9(1): bmjopen-2018-026826.
• Pollard, Tessa M. & Wagnild, Janelle M. (2017). Gender differences in walking (for leisure, transport and in total) across adult life: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 17(1): 341.
• Abbas, S.Z., Pollard, T.M., Wynn, P., Learmonth, A., Joyce, K. & Bambra, C. (2015). The effectiveness of using the workplace to identify and address modifiable health risk factors in deprived populations. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 72(9): 664-669.
• Hornby-Turner, Y.C., Hampshire, K.R. & Pollard, T.M. (2014). A comparison of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in 9-11 year old British Pakistani and White British girls: a mixed methods study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 11: 74.
• Jones, Caroline HD, Pollard, Tessa M, Summerbell, CD & Ball, Helen L (2014). Could parental rules play a role in the association between short sleep and obesity in young children? Journal of Biosocial Science 46(3): 405-418.
• Pollard, T.M. & Guell, C. (2012). Assessing physical activity in Muslim women of South Asian origin. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 9: 970-976.
• Pearce, M.S., Tennant, P.W.G., Mann, K.D., Pollard, T.M., McLean, L., Kaye, B. & Parker, L. (2012). Lifecourse predictors of mammographic density: The Newcastle Thousand Families cohort study. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 131: 187-195.
• Pollard, T.M., Hornby-Turner, Y.C., Ghurbhurrun, A. & Ridgers, N. (2012). Differences between 9–11 year old British Pakistani and White British girls in physical activity and behavior during school recess. BMC Public Health 12: 1087.
• Pollard, T.M., Rousham, E.K. & Colls, R. (2011). Intergenerational and familial approaches to obesity and related conditions. Annals of Human Biology 38: 385-389.
• Pollard, T.M. (2011). Ethnic groups as migrant groups: improving understanding of links between ethnicity/race and risk of type 2 diabetes and associated conditions. Annual Review of Anthropology 40: 145-158.
• Pearce, M.S., Groom, A., Relton, C.L., Peaston, R.T., Pollard, T.M. & Francis, R.M. (2011). Birth weight and early socioeconomic disadvantage as predictors of sex hormones and sex hormone binding globulin in men at age 49-51 years. American Journal of Human Biology 23(2): 185-189.
• Henderson, E.J., Jones, C.H.D., Hornby-Turner, Y.C. & Pollard, T.P. (2011). Adiposity and Blood Pressure in 7- to 11-Year-Old Children: Comparison of British Pakistani and White British Children, and of British Pakistani Children of Migrant and British-Born Mothers. American Journal of Human Biology 23(5): 710-716.
• Pollard, T.M., Unwin, N., Fischbacher, C. & Chamley, J.K. (2009). Total estradiol levels in migrant and British-born British Pakistani women: investigating early life influences on ovarian function. American Journal of Human Biology 21: 301-304.
• Pollard, T.M., Unwin, N., Fischbacher, C. & Chamley, J.K. (2008). Differences in body composition and cardiovascular and type 2 diabetes risk factors between migrant and British-born British Pakistani women. American Journal of Human Biology 20: 545-549.
• Blell, M.T., Pollard, T.M. & Pearce, M.S. (2008). Predictors of age at menarche in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study. Journal of Biosocial Science 40(4): 563-575.
• Pollard, T.M., Pearce, K.L., Rousham, E.K. & Schwartz, J.E. (2007). Do blood pressure and heart rate responses to perceived stress vary according to endogenous estrogen level in women? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132(1): 151-157.
• Cooper, R., Blell, M.T., Hardy, R., Black, S., Pollard, T.M., Wadsworth, M.E.J., Pearce, M.S. & Kuh, D. (2006). The validity of age at menarche self-reported in adulthood. Journal of epidemiology and community health 60: 993-997.
• Pollard, T.M., Unwin, N.C., Fischbacher, C.M. & Chamley, J.K. (2006). Sex hormone-binding globulin and androgen levels in immigrant and British-born premenopausal British Pakistani women: evidence of early life influences? American Journal of Human Biology 18(6): 741-747.
• Henderson, E.J., Atherton, H., Weir, R. & Pollard, T.M. (2005). Intergenerational differences in body composition in 8-9 year old British Pakistani children: A pilot study. Society, Biology and Human Affairs 70(2): 23-27.
• Pollard, T.M. & Schwartz, J.E. (2003). Are changes in blood pressure and total cholesterol related to changes in mood? An 18-month study of men and women. Health psychology 22(1): 47-53.
• Pollard, T.M., Carlin, L.E., Bhopal, R., Unwin, N., White, M. & Fischbacher, C. (2003). Social networks and coronary heart disease risk factors in South Asians and Europeans in the United Kingdom. Ethnicity and health 8: 263-275.
• Pollard, T.M., Fischbacher, C. & Unwin, N. (2002). Oestrogen may contribute to variation in mortality. British medical journal 324: 237.
• Ahmad, N., Pollard, T.M. & Unwin, N. (2002). The optimal timing of blood collection during the menstrual cycle for the assessment of endogenous sex hormones. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers and prevention 11: 147-151.
• Pollard, T.M. (2001). Changes in mental well-being, blood pressure and total cholesterol during workplace reorganisation: the impact of uncertainty. Work and Stress 15: 14-28.