Emma Hagqvist Brulin

Karolinska Institutet | KI · Occupational and Environmental Medicine Division

Objectives The study purpose was to describe the Swedish HealthPhys cohort. Using data from the HealthPhys study, we aimed to describe the prevalence of clinical burnout and major depression in a representative sample of Swedish physicians across gender, age, worksite, hierarchical position, and speciality in spring of 2021, during the third wave o...

Background While there is increasing literature on the health effects of work–life interference, few studies have investigated the relationship between a direct measure of work–life interference and objective sickness absence measures. The aim of this study is to investigate whether work–life interference is a risk factor for subsequent long-term s...

Nine Swedish small business owners in the cleaning sector were interviewed regarding their personal views and experiences concerning employer responsibilities in relation to occupational safety and health management for this study. The analysis is guided by a qualitative content analysis exploring strategies applied to responsible leadership. We fo...

Enrichment is a phenomenon described as the synergistic and beneficial effects of participating in both work and private life. Far too few studies have acknowledged the role of gender in enrichment. By applying a gender theoretical approach, this article has two aims; first, we aim to study gender in enrichment by examining the factorial structure...

In this study, 11 Swedish occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors were interviewed about their views of and experiences interacting with micro-enterprises (1-9 employees). The qualitative content analysis found one theme, “Falling outside the system”, and three subthemes, “The inspector—shaped by specific standards”, “The bureaucrat and the...

Introduction The study aimed to investigate in which way performance-based reimbursement (PBR) systems in Swedish healthcare services (1) subjectively impacted physicians’ work and patient care and (2) were associated with the occurrence of stress-induced exhaustion disorders among physicians. Method The study applied a mixed-method design. Data w...

Introduction: The present article aimed to investigate 1) if mental health problems (depression and burnout including the dimensions; emotional exhaustion, mental distance and cognitive and emotional impairment) differed between nurses and physicians in Sweden, 2) if any differences were explained by differences in sex compositions, and 3) if any...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic was a tremendous challenge to the practice of modern medicine. In this study, we use neo-institutional theory to gain an in-depth understanding of how physicians in Sweden narrate how they position themselves as physicians when practicing modern medicine during the first wave of the pandemic. At focus is medical l...

Background Despite a high prevalence of mental health problems among physicians, the rate of help-seeking behaviour is low. Instead, physicians tend to self-treat. This can have a negative impact on individual physicians and society. Aims The aim was to explore the relationship between self-rated depression, the use of psychotropic medication, and...

Flexible work arrangements (FWA) may be beneficial for increasing perceived flexibility (i.e. control over when, where and how to work) and reducing interference between work and private-life, but knowledge of gendered patterns of these relationships is sparse. Drawing on gender theory, the aim of this study was to conduct gender-differentiated ana...

Introduction Extensive studies regarding the COVID-19 pandemic have shown negative effects on physicians-in-training. Besides a high workload, their learning environment has been affected. A quality learning environment is vital for residents’ physician’s clinical development and also their health. Nevertheless, few studies have explored this. The...

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered workers' possibilities to combine work and private life. Work and private life could either interfere with each other, that is, when conflicting demands arise, or enrich, that is, when the two roles are beneficial to one another. Analyzing data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health through ind...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged healthcare organizations and puts focus on risk management in many ways. Both medical staff and leaders at various levels have been forced to find solutions to problems they had not previously encountered. This study aimed to explore how physicians in Sweden narrated the changes in organizational logi...

Purpose This aim of this study was to explore how hospital-based physicians in Sweden experienced the challenges in working conditions related to the provision of care during the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when hospitals transitioned to pandemic care. Design/methodology/approach The study has a qualitative design. Twenty-fiv...

Introduction The literature consistently shows that work-life interference, i.e. the multiple burden of having different social roles, e.g. being a worker, parent, partner and friend is associated with poor health. However, few studies have studied the relationship between measures of work-life interference and objective measures of sickness absenc...

Introduction Positive work engagement can increase in times of hard pressures, and especially when organisational resources are at place. Nevertheless, such hard pressure as the COVID-19 pandemic on care processes is not seen in modern times in Sweden. Inherent unpredictability of a pandemic together with the initial lack of reliable scientific dat...

The safety and health of many workers employed in micro-enterprises (with less than 10 employees) is poor, and legal arrangements related to working environments remain a considerable challenge in these enterprises. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how Swedish occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors perceive themse...

This study aimed to explore the distribution of social capital and its relation to self-perceived health in lone mothers across Europe. Data were drawn from the European Social Survey Round 5. The sample was restricted to women (15–64 years), not cohabiting with a partner, and with children (≤ 18 years) living in the household. Social capital was m...

The aim of this article is to elucidate how male and female managers of small-scale enterprises in Norway and Sweden relate to and experience the intersection between work and private life. A qualitative content analysis was adopted to explore interviews with 18 managers. The analysis resulted in three primary categories: conflict as a part of the...

Syftet med detta projekt var att studera arbetsmiljö och hälsa i mikroföretag i Sverige och undersöka Arbetsmiljöverkets inspektioner i denna typ av företag. Syftet var också att utifrån projektets resultat skapa underlag för förbättrande insatser för Arbetsmiljöverkets tillsyn över mikroföretag. Både kvantitativa och kvalitativa studier genomförde...

Purpose The increasingly demanding psychosocial working conditions in Swedish public sector workplaces call for implementation of workplace health promotion (WHP) interventions. There is a need to increase first-line public sector managers’ capacities for health-promoting leadership. The purpose of this paper is to investigate first-line managers’...

Background: European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job creation. It can be assumed that health and well-being among the self-employed and managers in small-scale enterprises are particularly crucial in this enterprise group because the smallness of the enterprise makes its...

Drawing on cross-sectional data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) repeated at three time points, this article studies whether and how the gendered division of housework changed between 1994 and 2012 across 21 countries. Large transformations toward greater gender equality at the societal level during this period (i.e., gender eq...

This study explores individual and contextual risk factors in relation to work interfering with private life (WIL) and private life interfering with work (LIW) among self-employed men and women across European countries. It also studies the relationship between interference (LIW and WIL) and well-being among self-employed men and women. Drawing on...

Self-employed is an interesting category when it comes to the phenomenon of sickness presence. To our knowledge, there are few studies of sickness presence among self-employed. In addition, earlier studies have indicated that self-employed have a high working pace and work many and irregular ours (Gunnarsson, Vingård, & Josephson, 2007; Nordenmark,...

This study explores individual and contextual risk factors for the onset of work interfering with private life (WIL) and private life interfering with work (LIW) among self-employed men and women across European countries. It also studies the relationship between interference (LIW and WIL) and wellbeing among self-employed men and women and the eff...

Literature shows that self-employed individuals seem to experience more conflict between work and family demands than employees but variation is great, especially among self-employed men and women. For instance, studies suggest that women chooses self-employment as a strategy to balance work and family while men uses self-employment as a way to fin...

Purpose This study explored the gaps between experienced working conditions (WCs) and the perceived importance of these conditions in relation to subjective health in Swedish public-sector workplaces. Design/methodology/approach In total, 379 employees answered questions concerning WCs and health. Nine WC areas were created to measure the gap be...

States play an important role in gender equality through policy structuring. In this case study, the aim is to explore whether changes in parental leave policies over two decades trickle down to changes in gendered time use in two polarised countries: Sweden and Spain, represented by the Basque Country. Sweden represents dual-earner countries with...

This study analysed whether gender context is important to differences in the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and well-being across Europe. We hypothesised that in countries that support equality in work life and where norms support women’s employment, the relationship between WFC and low well-being is weaker than in countries with...

Perceived imbalance between work and private life might lead to ill health and sickness absenteeism at work. Research support the fact that two factors: job control and social support can reduce individuals’ perception of imbalance. In this study we investigate the relationships between job control, social support and imbalance between work and pr...

In this article, the authors set out to study the time use of men and women in Sweden, comparing self-employed and employed individuals. Previous studies indicate that there are reasons to believe that both gendered time use and mechanisms related to time use might differ between the self-employed and employees. Employing time use data, the aim was...

The aim of this article is to explain the results of the SOPHIE project regarding the effect of gender policies on gender inequalities in health in Europe. We start with the results of a systematic review on how gender regimes and gender equality policies at the country level impact women’s health and gender inequalities in health. Then, we report...

Background This thesis explores the division of work, work-family perceptions and well-being in different policy contexts. Work (both paid and unpaid) is an arena where gender order is emphasised. Work task specialisation is often based on our ideas of femininity and masculinity. A gender order results in different chances and possibilities in life...

Dual-earner families are common in Sweden, and most women are involved in the labour market. It has been shown that employees and self-employed individuals perceive their working conditions differently: self-employed individuals are more likely to experience an imbalance between work and family, higher job demands, and the feeling that they must be...

Social and economic policies can help reduce health inequalities Over the past few years, SOPHIE has accumulated evidence regarding the influence of social and economic policies on the level of health across the population and on the degree to which health inequalities are influenced by socioeconomic, gender and immigration factors. At the same tim...

Time allocation is a highly gendered process, and labour division is an important factor in gender equality. States play an important role in gender equality through the structuring of policies. In this study, we study family-friendly policies that are believed to be important influences on the creation of gender norms both in the labour market and...

Background: The objective of this study was to analyze how involvement in paid and unpaid work and perceived labor-related stress are related to the well-being of married or cohabiting men and women in Europe. Methods: Data from the European Social Survey round two has been used. The sample consists of 5800 women and 6952 men, aged between 18-65 ye...

Det övergripande målet för folkhälsan är att skapa samhälleliga förutsättningar för en god hälsa på lika villkor för hela befolkningen. Statens folkhälsoinstitut har därför regeringens uppdrag att analysera och följa upp den nationella folkhälsopolitiken samt att föreslå framtida satsningar och prioriteringar. Resultatet presenteras i en regelbunde...