World Congress to recognise Scots scientist

Original research into physical activity and health by a Glaswegian is to be confirmed 60 years on.

Tribute will be paid to Scottish epidemiologist the late Professor Jerry Morris, at the opening ceremony of the 8th World Congress on Active Ageing in Glasgow on August 13th.

Morris was one of the most significant figures in public health and in the history of British health care. He discovered the link between health and exercise and was a key mover in the health-care advances of the 20th century.

Born in Liverpool shortly after his parents arrived in the United Kingdom from Poland, his family almost immediately moved to Glasgow where he grew up experiencing social deprivation on a daily basis.

Educated in Glasgow and then at medical school in London, he qualified as a doctor in 1934. In 1949 Morris made one of the most significant discoveries in post-war health - the link between lack of exercise and ill-health, specifically heart disease.

His research among London bus drivers and conductors showed that, though both jobs were routinely filled by men with similar social backgrounds and status, there was a discrepancy in the heart-attack rate.

Rigorously tested and analysed, his paper, ‘Coronary heart disease and physical activity of work', was only published in The Lancet in 1953, when Morris was truly convinced of the results.

His latter work concerned the minimum income required for healthy living, something he was as passionate about as he was for the need for a minimum wage as a way of achieving good health for the whole population.

Having worked, swam and cycled on his exercise bike until a couple of weeks before his death, Jerry Morris died from pneumonia after a short illness in October 2009 at the age of 99.

In a keynote address at the opening ceremony, Morris' research will be echoed by Professor David Buchner, a Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor in Applied Health Sciences in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Prof Buchner's presentation will examine recent national and international policy and guidelines in relation to how much physical activity older adults (65+) should do to improve their health.