A research team is in Steinbach for the next few weeks to gather data for a study on the health and fitness of Manitobans aged 30 to 46. Dylan MacKay is a research associate with The Manitoba Personalized Lifestyle Research (TMPLR) program being run by the University of Manitoba. MacKay outlines they are studying how lifestyle affects chronic disease risk in Manitoba.

"It's an observational health study where we're looking at how diet and lifestyle, like physical activity and sleep and stress, are related to health in Manitoba."

He says volunteers in this age group are invited to contact them on their web site to participate.

"Men and women aged 30-46 who are not currently pregnant or lactating can participate in the study. They just need to come to our website or call us and book an appointment. It takes two days to participate, two consecutive days and we book in the morning. The research bus is set up at Bethesda Hospital. It's about one hour and 45 minutes each day. On day one, you have a blood sample taken, fasted, then you have a DEXA scan done, it's a body composition scanner that measures bone density, it does your muscle mass, your lean mass and your fat mass. We also do things like hand grip strength. On day two there's a physical activity test. We test your upper body strength and your cardiovascular strength on a bike so you do a bike test while we measure your oxygen consumption."

MacKay says each participant is given the data that is collected from them.

13 researchers from the U of M are involved in the study.