It all started with interdisciplinary research
I studied Sociology, Social Policy and Political Science and graduated for Bachelor of Arts (B A). During my PhD-student period I specialised in Medical Sociology and Epidemiology. I presented my PhD Thesis, a monograph entitled; "Social stratification and ill-health - in the Study of Men Born in 1913". The thesis was based in the field of Medical Sociology and Social Epidemiology and published both at the Philosophical Faculty at Linköping University and the Medical Faculty at Uppsala University.
From Primary Care to international research collaboration
I was for a long period participating in international collaborations with many comparative studies published, not least with the Clinic of Family and Social Medicine at the University of Crete in Greece. This has been supported by the Socrates fund and also other funds (FP7-Health) from the EU Commission. I also had some collaboration with the international pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Since ten years back I am leading an interdisciplinary research group directed towards community medicine and health and society; the “Twincities Research Group” including almost 20 researchers from different disciplines as members. In later years I have been involved in the development of a new biomarker for measuring prolonged stress, “cortisol in hair”. This new stress marker is now applied in several on going research projects, not least In analysis of data from the prospective ABIS-study.Scientifically, I have now a publication list of over 150 publications (around 70 listed in PubMed) with different topics in public health, community medicine and social epidemiology, from internationally publications in “The Lancet” to Swedish text books (monographs) for university students.
I have been acting as scientific referee for several international medical journals for many years.