Health and Society

What is the impact of environmental and social changes when it comes to health development at individual, group or community level? How can we promote health? These are examples of questions that researchers in Health and society seeks to answer.

Jogging. Foto: Istock

This field of research is interdisciplinary and involves knowledge, methods, and researchers from various disciplines. The research involves how environmental and social changes affect the development of health at the level of the individual, the group, and society, as well as strategies that are applied by the various actors in a welfare society to promote health and/or help people to experience a sense of physical, mental, and social well-being.

This includes the significance of movement for health and how people with illnesses, injuries, or handicaps can manage their daily lives, their jobs, and their leisure time. Also in focus are nursing and rehabilitation measures as well as the interaction between care providers and care recipients, and the people close to them, throughout the whole chain of care.

Examples of research objectives:

  • How social changes affect the development of health
  • The level and distribution of health in today’s society
  • Factors that can influence health such as stress, strain, social support, job situation and knowledge
  • Strategies applied by the various actors in a welfare society to promote health
  • The individual’s health conditions, reactions to sickness and ill health, as well as the effects of care and treatment
  • Measures that help people experience a sense of hope and safety, as well as physical, mental, and social well-being
  • The interaction between care provider and care recipient, and the people close to them
  • Changes within health care, medical treatments, and welfare, both within and outside of society’s commitments, with a focus on decision-making processes
  • Preventative work against injuries, alcohol, and smoking
  • The spread and evaluation of new techniques.
A close-up of a computer. There are different things around the computer; to the left two toys, right in front of it is a cup of coffee and to the right are a notebook and a mobile.

SWEDEwork – Sustainable work and everyday life

The research group SWEDEwork aims to investigate the individual's prerequisites for a sustainable working life, and to design person-centred interventions in medical and vocational rehabilitation.

How “informal” critique, expressed verbally by patients, impacts care encounters and can improve care quality and equity is a blind spot in current work on the Swedish complaint system as well as in international research.

Patients’ critique in care encounters and its potential to improve care quality

How are care encounters affected by patients expressing critique? How can such critique lead to better, safer, and more equal care? These are questions explored within the project “What are you complaining about?”.

Close-up dandelion seeds on black background.

Epistemologi och post-Covid

The pandemic has impacted us all, but some more than others. For those who are suffering from post-Covid, the lingering impact is particularly tangible. Interdisciplinary research is needed to understand this new health challenge.

Research centers

Large Swedish study seeks the answer to heart, vascular and lung disease

News

young man taking a break from running.

Physical fitness in adolescence linked to less atherosclerosis later

Men who were physically fit when they were young had a lower risk of atherosclerosis almost 40 years later. These findings suggest that atherosclerosis is one of the mechanisms behind the link between physical fitness and cardiovascular disease.

Demonstration of a mass injury incident and application of pressure to fictive bleeding.

Where to place lifesaving bleeding control first aid equipment

Where should bleeding control equipment be located to save as many lives as possible? Researchers have found the answer to this through computer simulations of a bomb exploding in a shopping centre.

Young adults around a big table working with colourful papers.

Young adults with disabilities and researchers design an app together

Young adults with intellectual disabilities are involved in designing a digital tool that will help them feel better. According to researcher Ulrika Müssener, it goes without saying that users should be asked what they need and want.