| 1. |
- Larsson, Matz, et al.
(författare)
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Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and health effects among hospitality workers in Sweden : before and after the implementation of a smoke-free law
- 2008
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. - Helsingfors : Institutet för arbetshygien. - 0355-3140 .- 1795-990X. ; 34:4, s. 267-277
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives This study attempted to identify changes in exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, as well as symptoms and attitudes among hospitality workers after the introduction of extended smoke-free workplace legislation.Methods A total of 37 volunteers working in bingo halls and casinos (gaming workers) and 54 bars and restaurant employees (other workers) in nine Swedish communities participated in the study. Altogether 71 of 91 persons (14 daily smokers and 57 nonsmokers) participated in both the preban baseline survey and the follow-up 12 months after the ban. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, smoking habits, respiratory and sensory symptoms, and attitudes towards the ban were recorded, and spirometry was carried out.Results The frequency of reported respiratory and sensory symptoms was approximately halved among the nonsmokers in both occupational groups after the introduction of the ban. Initially 87% had exposure to environmental tobacco smoke that was over the nicotine cut-off level chosen to identify possible health risk (<0.5 µg/m3), while, after the ban, it was only 22%, a relative risk of 0.25 (95% confidence interval 0.15–0.41). The risk decreased in both occupational groups, but gaming workers experienced the highest preban exposure levels. Attitudes towards the legislation were largely positive, particularly after the ban. However, there was no notable change in lung function, and there was no notable reduction in the number of cigarettes consumed by smokers.Conclusions The introduction of smoke-free legislation was associated with a substantial reduction in respiratory and sensory symptoms, as well as reduced exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at work, particularly among gaming workers.
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| 2. |
- Hägglund, Maria, Lektor, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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The NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey : Cross-Sectional Study of National Patient Portal Users in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Internet Research. - : JMIR Publications. - 1438-8871. ; 25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Although many surveys have been conducted on patients accessing their own health records in recent years, there is a limited amount of nationwide cross-country data available on patients' views and preferences. To address this gap, an international survey of patient users was conducted in the Nordic eHealth project, NORDeHEALTH. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics and experiences of patients who accessed their electronic health records (EHRs) through national patient portals in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. METHODS: A cross-sectional web-based survey was distributed using the national online health portals. The target participants were patients who accessed the national patient portals at the start of 2022 and who were aged ≥15 years. The survey included a mixture of close-ended and free-text questions about participant sociodemographics, usability experience, experiences with health care and the EHR, reasons for reading health records online, experience with errors, omissions and offense, opinions about security and privacy, and the usefulness of portal functions. In this paper, we summarized the data on participant demographics, past experience with health care, and the patient portal through descriptive statistics. RESULTS: In total, 29,334 users completed the survey, of which 9503 (32.40%) were from Norway, 13,008 (44.35%) from Sweden, 4713 (16.07%) from Finland, and 2104 (7.17%) from Estonia. National samples were comparable according to reported gender, with about two-thirds identifying as women (19,904/29,302, 67.93%). Age distributions were similar across the countries, but Finland had older users while Estonia had younger users. The highest attained education and presence of health care education varied among the national samples. In all 4 countries, patients most commonly rated their health as "fair" (11,279/29,302, 38.48%). In Estonia, participants were more often inclined to rate their health positively, whereas Norway and Sweden had the highest proportion of negative health ratings. Across the whole sample, most patients received some care in the last 2 years (25,318/29,254, 86.55%). Mental health care was more common (6214/29,254, 21.24%) than oncological care (3664/29,254, 12.52%). Overall, most patients had accessed their health record "2 to 9 times" (11,546/29,306, 39.4%), with the most frequent users residing in Sweden, where about one-third of patients accessed it "more than 20 times" (4571/13,008, 35.14%). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first large-scale international survey to compare patient users' sociodemographics and experiences with accessing their EHRs. Although the countries are in close geographic proximity and demonstrate similar advancements in giving their residents online records access, patient users in this survey differed. We will continue to investigate patients' experiences and opinions about national patient-accessible EHRs through focused analyses of the national and combined data sets from the NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey.
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| 3. |
- Kjällmén, Håkan, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of a School Tobacco Policy on Student Smoking and Snus Use
- 2020
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Ingår i: Health behavior and policy review. - : Paris Scholar Publishing. - 2326-4403. ; 7:4, s. 358-365
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: A school tobacco policy (STP) commonly is used to reduce smoking among adolescents, but the effectiveness of such programs is unclear. We evaluated the impact of an STP on tobacco use in 4 schools.Methods: The study included 4 intervention and 4 control schools, located in the inner city of Stockholm, Sweden. Schools self-selected for assignment to either an intervention program or a comparison group. In total, the study was comprised of 2671 students in grades 9 and 11, ages 15 to 18, and 1998 students (75%) responded to the questionnaire. We used a repeated cross-sectional design with assessment of tobacco use prevalence before implementation of the STP in 2016 and after 2 years under the program, in 2018.Results: Two years after the STP, the intervention school in grade 9 showed a lower prevalence (13.5% vs 1.6%) in the proportion of students who reported smoking (χ2 = 4.54; p < .05) whereas the proportion reporting snus use was practically unchanged. We found no statistically significant impact of the STP for grade 11.Conclusions: The results are promising with regard to smoking, when the STP is implemented in early adolescence.
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| 4. |
- Brunnberg, Elinor, et al.
(författare)
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Tinnitus and hearing loss in 15-16-year-old students : mental health symptoms, substance use, and exposure in school
- 2008
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Ingår i: International Journal of Audiology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1499-2027 .- 1708-8186. ; 47:11, s. 688-694
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current study assessed the responses from a survey titled ”Life and Health – Young People 2005”, completed by 2.878 15-16 year-old adolescents in mainstream schools in the county of Örebro, Sweden. Thirty-nine percent of students with hearing loss (slight, mild, or moderate) and 6% of students with normal hearing reported tinnitus often or always during the past three months. Almost no gender difference was observed among students with normal hearing reporting tinnitus (boys 6.3%, girls 5.6%); however, a gender difference was noticed among hard-of-hearing (HH) students (boys 50%, girls 28%). Adolescents with both hearing loss and tinnitus reported considerably higher scores for mental symptoms, substance use, and school problems than other students. Anxiety in the past three months, male gender, and alcohol consumption in the past year were associated with tinnitus in HH students; irritation and anxiety in the past three months, disability, use of illicit drugs, and truancy predicted tinnitus in the normal hearing group. Consequently, students with a hearing loss and tinnitus are at high risk and should be monitored for subsequent problems.
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| 5. |
- Baxter, Rebecca, et al.
(författare)
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COVID-19 : Opportunities for interdisciplinary research to improve care for older people in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : Sage Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 49:1, s. 29-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The emergence of COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it, arguably none more so than for older people. In Sweden, the majority of COVID-19-related fatalities have been among people aged ⩾70 years, many of whom were receiving health and social care services. The pandemic has illuminated aspects within the care continuum requiring evaluative research, such as decision-making processes, the structure and organisation of care, and interventions within the complex public-health system. This short communication highlights several key areas for future interdisciplinary and multi-sectorial collaboration to improve health and social care services in Sweden. It also underlines that a valid, reliable and experiential evidence base is the sine qua non for evaluative research and effective public-health systems.
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| 6. |
- Caporale, N., et al.
(författare)
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From cohorts to molecules: Adverse impacts of endocrine disrupting mixtures
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 375:6582
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Convergent evidence associates exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with major human diseases, even at regulation-compliant concentrations. This might be because humans are exposed to EDC mixtures, whereas chemical regulation is based on a risk assessment of individual compounds. Here, we developed a mixture-centered risk assessment strategy that integrates epidemiological and experimental evidence. We identified that exposure to an EDC mixture in early pregnancy is associated with language delay in offspring. At human-relevant concentrations, this mixture disrupted hormone-regulated and disease-relevant regulatory networks in human brain organoids and in the model organisms Xenopus leavis and Danio rerio, as well as behavioral responses. Reinterrogating epidemiological data, we found that up to 54% of the children had prenatal exposures above experimentally derived levels of concern, reaching, for the upper decile compared with the lowest decile of exposure, a 3.3 times higher risk of language delay. © 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Hagström, Josefin, et al.
(författare)
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Security and Privacy of Online Record Access : A Survey of Adolescents' Views and Experiences in Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Adolescent Health. - : Elsevier. - 1054-139X .- 1879-1972.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Ensuring security of online health records and patients' perceptions of security are concerns in adolescent healthcare. Little is known about adolescents' perceptions about healthcare's ability to protect online health records. This article explores adolescents' perspectives on security and privacy of their online health records, potential differences based on gender and health, attitudes to sharing information, and perceptions of what constitutes sensitive information. Methods: This study included a subset of items from a national online patient survey conducted in Sweden (January-February 2022), focusing on respondents aged 15–19 years. Gender and health status differences were calculated using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Of 218 adolescent respondents (77.1% female), a minority had security and privacy concerns. A notable proportion (41.3%) wished to control who could see their records, and those who reported better perceived health were more likely to want to manage access to their electronic health record (H = 13.569, p = .009). Most had not experienced unauthorized access to their records (75.2%) and had never shared health information on other online applications (85.8%). More than half (56.0%) perceived some information as sensitive, where mental health was the most common (76.0%). Most felt that reading their notes improved their trust for their healthcare professional (65.6%) and supported better communication with healthcare professionals (66.5%). Discussion: In this national survey, adolescents generally reported few concerns about patient portals. Findings emphasize the need for security and privacy protection and to empower adolescents with greater control over access to their health information housed in electronic health record systems.
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| 8. |
- Tinnfält, Agneta
(författare)
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Adolescents' perspective on mental health and health-promoting dialogues
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Young people in Sweden are satisfied with most things in their lives. But they are not satisfied with school and not with their opportunities for personal influence. The Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the right for children to express their views freely and that their views should be given due weight. In the present academic essay adolescents, 13, 15 and 16 years old, have been interviewed about matters concerning mental health. The overall aim of the study is to increase our knowledge of adolescents´ perceptions, of mental health and of school nurses´ mental health-promoting dialogue. Focus groups were used in the data collection in study I, as well as in study II. In study II these were combined with individual interviews. Altogether 26 adolescents in study I and 48 in study II were interviewed. Content analysis was used in the analysis in study I, and in study II a phenomenographical approach was used in the analysis. The findings in study I include what issues to discuss and where the school nurse’s mental health-promoting dialogue should take place. The findings show that adolescents emphasize as most important what the school nurse is like as a person in the health-promoting dialogue, and that trust, attentiveness, respectfulness, authenticity, accessibility during school hours and continuity are established. In study II, the findings show that adolescents find mental health to be an emotional experience where positive and negative health is part of the concept. Family is perceived as the most important determinant for young people’s health, closely followed by friends and thereafter school. The girls and the boys in study II did not feel that there were large differences in mental health between girls and boys, but they saw differences in the way they act; girls are talkative and emotional, and boys are silent and tough. Age differences seem to be more important than gender in the adolescents’ perception of mental health. The findings are discussed in relation to gender and previous research. Furthermore, the voice of young people and ethical issues in interviewing young people are discussed. The findings are thereafter placed in an ecological model.
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| 9. |
- Bergqvist, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Health care utilisation two years prior to suicide in Sweden: a retrospective explorative study based on medical records
- 2022
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Ingår i: BMC Health Services Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6963. ; 22:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective Previous literature has suggested that identifying putative differences in health care seeking patterns before death by suicide depending on age and gender may facilitate more targeted suicide preventive approaches. The aim of this study is to map health care utilisation among individuals in the two years prior to suicide in Sweden in 2015 and to examine possible age and gender differences. Methods Design: A retrospective explorative study with a medical record review covering the two years preceding suicide. Setting: All health care units located in 20 of Sweden's 21 regions. Participants: All individuals residing in participating regions who died by suicide during 2015 (n = 949). Results Almost 74% were in contact with a health care provider during the 3 months prior to suicide, and 60% within 4 weeks. Overall health care utilisation during the last month of life did not differ between age groups. However, a higher proportion of younger individuals (< 65 years) were in contact with psychiatric services, and a higher proportion of older individuals (>= 65 years) were in contact with primary and specialised somatic health care. The proportion of women with any type of health care contact during the observation period was larger than the corresponding proportion of men, although no gender difference was found among primary and specialised somatic health care users within four weeks and three months respectively prior to suicide. Conclusion Care utilisation before suicide varied by gender and age. Female suicide decedents seem to utilise health care to a larger extent than male decedents in the two years preceding death, except for the non-psychiatric services in closer proximity to death. Older adults seem to predominantly use non-psychiatric services, while younger individuals seek psychiatric services to a larger extent.
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| 10. |
- Brunnberg, Elinor, 1948-, et al.
(författare)
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Self-rated mental health, school adjustment, and substance use in hard-of-hearing adolescents
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1081-4159 .- 1465-7325. ; 13:3, s. 324-335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This survey, "Life and Health—Young People 2005," included all 15/16-year-old adolescents in mainstream schools in the county of Örebro, Sweden. Just students with a slight/mild or moderate hearing loss were included. There were 56 (1.9%) "hard-of-hearing (HH) students with multiple disabilities," 93 (3.1%) students who were "just HH," 282 (9.7%) students with some "other disability than HH," and 2,488 (85.2%) students with "no disability." "HH with multiple disabilities" reported considerably higher scores for mental symptoms, substance use, and school problems than the "no disability" group. Those with "just HH" and those with "other disability than HH" had more mental symptoms and school problems than the "no disability" group but no significant differences in substance use. In conclusion, the combination of a hearing loss and some other disability strongly increases the risk for mental symptoms, school problems, and substance use. This group, thus, is an important target for preventive measures.
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