“We’re interested in what determines the public health of a country and why health develops differently for different groups in society.”
This is how Professor Denny Vågerö at CHESS, the Centre for Health Equity Studies at Stockholm University/Karolinska institute, summarises the interdisciplinary research environment now appointed as a FAS centre for the coming years. The research programme is called “Human society as a life-long determinant of human health.”
“We will be working within the framework of CHESS and on the basis of at least two lines of research,” he explains.
One concerns looking at an individual’s health in a life course perspective. From this standpoint the state of health in adulthood is an effect of the individual’s past existence in terms of environmental factors, social conditions and also genetic and epigenetic predispositions.
“We look closely at conditions early in life, for instance the significance of the fetal environment, of the family, of physical and cognitive development and school achievements of children. Children who do not grow optimally in utero, or who are exposed to conflicts in the home for instance risk developing hypertension in adulthood. In other words, there’s a clear link between early factors and health later in life. We will now be pursuing this line on the basis of several large studies. A study of individuals born 1915 to 1929 in Uppsala and their children and grandchildren allows tracking health over three generations.”
“Another line of research which we will develop deals with contextual influences, i.e. how an individual’s health is affected by social contexts, for instance at school or in a neighbourhood. We have also embarked on an international project where we’re looking at how politics in the Nordic countries has affected public health in each country. An initial report shows clear links between political reforms such as child allowances and giving both women and men the opportunity to work, and the fact that child poverty and infant mortality are extremely low.”
CHESS was established in 2001 and is co-owned by the Karolinska institute in Stockholm and Stockholm University. Some 25 researchers and research students with a background in medicine, psychology and sociology are working at CHESS.
An important task and prerequisite for the studies being performed is the maintenance of existing and construction of new databases.
Text: Sara Bergqvist Månsson
FAS centre funding: SEK5.5 million annually.
For further information: 
, www.chess.su.se
