Irinja Lounassalo's expertise areas are:
- Sport pedagogy
- Assessment for learning and assessment of learning
- Physical activity during the life course
- Schoolyard affordances for physical activity and motor development
- Conducting systematic reviews
The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS) is a follow-up study examining the cardiovascular risks from childhood to adulthood. The LASERI study began in 1980, after which the same subjects have been followed up in several field studies, the most recent of which was completed in 2020. I defended my PhD in sports science in 2021 and my dissertation was part of the YFS research. I identified developmental trajectories of life-long physical activity and studied their relation to other health behaviors: smoking, alcohol use, sleep, nutrition and television viewing. Currently, in the YFS study, my research areas are sports club participation and active transport. In addition, I study the affordances of schoolyards to promote the physical activity and movement of children and young people during the school day. I do collaboration with the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study (Raine).
