Areas of supervision

  • Promotion of reproductive health for migrants in Denmark
  • Infertility, e.g. psychosocial aspects and prevention
  • Reproduction and the health of women in later life
  • Health consequences of socioeconomic factors in childhood
  • Family Health
  • Development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions
  • Healthy reproduction
  • Pension age and health
  • Evaluation of quality in and effect of prevention and rehabilitation among older people
  • Patient perspectives among older people 
  • Health and functional ability of older people, e.g. social and psychological aspects
  • Evaluation of the quality and effect of rehabilitation and prevention efforts among the elderly
  • Consequences of the introduction of technology to geriatric care
  • Inequality factors in rehabilitation of life style diseases
  • Hospital doctors’ judgements of patients’ rehabilitation potential versus the actual rehabilitation provided by municipal services
  • Health behaviours and lifestyle – patterns, causes and intervention possibilities
  • Social relations and health
  • Social networks and health - the formation of health behaviour and health in  networks
  • Health, employment and working environment
  • Employment and health
  • In the use of survey and register data, what importance has possible variation in the used educational groups for different outcomes?
  • The social consequences of illness
  • Social inequality in health – mechanisms and interventions
  • Social capital and health
  • Cardiometabolic conditions and access to health care in middle- and low-income countries

Specific projects

Functional capacity among the elderly in early old age – the importance of social factors.

Among society's elders, numerous studies have shown that both illness, health behavior, mental and physical functioning are influenced by social factors. For example, it has been shown that loneliness increases the risk of depression and the risk of not being able to cope in one's own home. Many age-related limitations begin in midlife or early old age, and we know very little about how social factors affect functioning at this time.
Using questionnaire data from the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank, we have the opportunity to examine this. Data were collected while the participants were both just before and just around retirement age, and we have numerous measures of many positive and negative aspects of social relationships as well as of both mental and physical functioning.
Contact: Charlotte Juul Nilsson, cjni@sund.ku.dk

Social foreground and the health of the elderly, use of health services and survival.

The life expectancy of  individuals varies greatly depending on socio-economic resources such as education, income and occupation. More recently, research has shown that the survival of the elderly can also be influenced by the socio-economic resources of their adult children.
Based on data from Danish registers, we can investigate possible explanations for this relationship by focusing on frequent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, COPD, ischemic heart disease, stroke, dementia or depression and subsequent use of health services.
Knowledge of the importance of children and their socio-economic resources for their parents' health is important for prevention, as the adult children of the elderly are often the primary caregivers when the elderly become dependent on care in old age.
Contact: Terese SH Jørgensen, tshj@sund.ku.dk

Social relations and COVID-19.

Patterns of everyday social contact became particularly challenged during COVID-19. Restrictions, but also individual considerations and concerns, influenced social interaction. Some societal groups were able to keep distance, while for some occupational groups, for example, it was impossible to keep a distance. Data from older people between the age of 60-70 give us the opportunity to study how COVID-19, and concerns about it, have affected patterns of social contact and concerns about social contact. Contact: Charlotte Juul Nilsson, cjni@sund.ku.dk

Retirement

  • What is the relationship between work environment and retirement timing?
  • Who chooses to unretire (come back to the workforce after retirement) and why?
  • What is the relationship between autonomy in retirement decisions and health-related factors?
  • How does informal caregiving affect retirement timing?
  • What are the reasons and main motivators for extending working life beyond retirement age in the Nordic countries?
    • Contact: Laura Pirhonen, laura.pirhonen@sund.ku.dk

Gestational diabetes

  • What are the costs associated with gestational diabetes (healthcare costs, societal costs etc.)?
  • What are the future consequences of gestational diabetes for the woman (higher risk of diabetes, higher risk of gestational diabetes in next pregnancy, higher costs, decrease in health-related quality of life etc.)?
  • What are the consequences of gestational diabetes on the infant and the relationship between the mother and the infant?
  • Does having gestational diabetes affect participation in the workforce? How and by how much? Does having diabetes affect participation in the workforce? How and by how much? 
    • Contact: Laura Pirhonen, laura.pirhonen@sund.ku.dk

Literature reviews

A systematic literature review of social connectedness and high levels of social isolation associations with epigenetic modifications (DNA methylation) and gene expression of e.g. inflammation.
Contact: Rikke Lund, rilu@sund.ku.dk

A systematic literature review of social connectedness and high levels of social isolation associations with neurological changes (MRI) and cognitive function.
Contact: Rikke Lund, rilu@sund.ku.dk