Erik Reidar Sund

Erik Reidar Sund
Norwegian University of Science and Technology | NTNU · HUNT Research Center

PhD

About

103
Publications
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Publications

Publications (103)
Article
Background Increasing use of substances is observed among adolescents in recent years. Early onset of substance use dramatically increases the risk of substance use disorder, dependence, and poorer psychological, social, and physical health, and is thus a public health concern. We explore trends in socioeconomic inequalities in past year use of can...
Article
Background The purpose of this report is to examine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected pre-existing trends in mental health, with a focus on subgroup differences across age, gender and socioeconomic status. Methods Our analysis uses data from two survey periods (HUNT4: 2017–2019 and HUNT-COVID: 2021–2023) from the Trøndelag Health Study...
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on adolescents’ physical activity, sports involvement, and feelings of loneliness remain inadequately understood. This study aimed to explore the shifts in leisure-time physical activity, sports participation, and loneliness among adolescents before and during the pandemic, positing that the pandemic has...
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Background Substance use is a global health concern and early onset among adolescents increases health risks. We explore national overall trends in prevalence and trends in socioeconomic inequalities in past year alcohol intoxication, cannabis use, and use of other illicit drugs among Norwegian adolescents (ages ∼ 15–19 years of age) between 2014 a...
Article
Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis provides important opportunities to study interaction and effect modification for which individual studies often lack power. While previous meta-analyses have commonly focused on multiplicative interaction, additive interaction holds greater relevance for public health and may in certain contexts bett...
Preprint
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Purpose Using data on Norwegian adolescents, this study aimed to explore changes in mental health, quality of life, somatic health complaints and loneliness into the COVID-19 pandemic, also considering the changes according to socioeconomic position (SEP). Methods The study involved a cross-sectional comparative design with data from Young-HUNT4 (...
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Today’s young people report having poorer mental health and well-being than ever before; this situation indicates that there is a need for creating new knowledge-based preventive public health strategies. Both school and leisure activities are important arenas where young people can experience a sense of well-being and learn essential life skills....
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Background Although behavioral mechanisms in the association among depression, anxiety, and cancer are plausible, few studies have empirically studied mediation by health behaviors. We aimed to examine the mediating role of several health behaviors in the associations among depression, anxiety, and the incidence of various cancer types (overall, br...
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In recent decades, increases in mental health problems in adolescents have been reported from several large population-based surveys. This raises questions about changes in underlying risk and protective factors that can inform future intervention strategies. Population data were collected from 1995 to 2019 in three waves of the Young-HUNT studies...
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Background Social anxiety disorder (SAD) most commonly develops in adolescence—a period of life that includes a transition to upper secondary school. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which social anxiety in adolescence is associated with the completion of upper secondary school and progression to higher education. Methods This...
Article
Active travel to school (ATS) is promoted due to its benefits for health, mental well-being and the environment. Although the impact of the urban form on ATS has been extensively researched, findings have remained contradictory. Existing studies have mainly relied on aggregated, area-based measures, scarcely applying disaggregated, network-based me...
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Background Socioeconomic inequalities constitute an important focus area for public health, and it has long been established that higher educational level and longer lifespan are correlated. Little is known about decennial time trends in poor self-rated health and mental distress. Methods This study linked decennial cross-sectional survey data on...
Article
Depression, anxiety and other psychosocial factors are hypothesized to be involved in cancer development. We examined whether psychosocial factors interact with or modify the effects of health behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol use, in relation to cancer incidence. Two‐stage individual participant data meta‐analyses were performed based on 22 c...
Article
Background The study had two aims: first, to investigate trends in socioeconomic inequalities in psychological distress and loneliness among Norwegian adolescents, and second, to study variation and covariation of psychological distress and loneliness within adolescents and between siblings within families. Methods Multivariate mixed models were u...
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Objective Assess whether engagement in a range of cultural activities, both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ (ie, receptive and creative) participation, is associated with later demand for general practitioner (GP) consultations. Design Longitudinal prospective cohort study. Setting Data from the population-based the third Survey of Trøndelag Health Study...
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a leading cause of premature death globally and have common preventable risk factors. In Norway, the NCDNOR-project aims at establishing new knowledge in the prevention of NCDs by combining information from national registries with data from population-based health studies. In the present study, we aimed to harmo...
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Background Depression and anxiety have long been hypothesized to be related to an increased cancer risk. Despite the great amount of research that has been conducted, findings are inconclusive. To provide a stronger basis for addressing the associations between depression, anxiety, and the incidence of various cancer types (overall, breast, lung, p...
Article
Background: Neighborhood deprivation and depression have been linked to epigenetic age acceleration. The next-generation epigenetic clocks including the DNA methylation (DNAm) GrimAge, and PhenoAge have incorporated clinical biomarkers of physiological dysregulation by selecting cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites that are associated with risk factor...
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Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are risk factors for depression, yet the relationship between the drug treatments for these diseases and the risk of antidepressant initiation remains unclear. This study aimed to examine possible associations between the use of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (AC...
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It is well-known that the social environment in which children and adolescents live and grow has an impact on their mental wellbeing, though the relative importance of different social contexts may vary. In the present study, we used data from the Young-HUNT4 survey in Norway (n = 8066, age range 13 to 19 years). Linear regression models were used...
Article
Background: Life expectancy (LE) is increasing worldwide, while there is lack of information on how this affects older individuals' use of formal home care services. Aim: We aimed to decompose LE into years with and without home care services and estimate projected number of users towards 2050 in Norway for people 70 years or older. Methods: T...
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The Norwegian Public Health Act (PHA) mandates municipalities to integrate a systematic, knowledge-based, cross-sectoral approach aimed at levelling the social gradient in health. This study aimed to describe and analyse how the intentions of the PHA are addressed in municipal plans and project-planning documents. A document analysis of municipal p...
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Background Emerging research findings suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic may have affected various social groups differently. Using follow-up health data from Norway, the aim of this study was to investigate whether change in psychological distress in adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic differed across socioeconomic position (SEP). Methods Da...
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Aims: The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) has collected population data through comprehensive decennial surveys over the last four decades and has so far collected data from 240,000 participants. The participants are identified with the unique Norwegian birth number, which enables them to be followed throughout different life stages, from survey to...
Article
Background Depressive symptoms and mood disorders are associated with a host of physical conditions. However, it is inconclusive whether depressive symptoms are also associated with cancer onset. The aim of this study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms are associated with cancer incidence in a large population-based sample of men and wo...
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Background: Cardiovascular agents, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor inhibitors, acetylsalicylic acid, statins, and metformin, have demonstrated benefits for depression. However, there is scant evaluation of these drugs' antidepressant properties in large population settings. Objective: This study aimed...
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Objectives Public health trends are formed by political, economic, historical and cultural factors in society. The aim of this paper was to describe overall changes in mental health among adolescents and adults in a Norwegian population over the three last decades and discuss some potential explanations for these changes. Design Repeated populatio...
Article
Background Restructuring labour markets offers natural population-level experiments of great social epidemiological interest. Many coastal areas have endured substantial restructuring of their local labour markets following declines in small-scale fishing and transitions to new employment opportunities. It is unknown how educational inequalities in...
Preprint
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In the HUNT Study, all residents aged ≥20 years in the Nord-Trøndelag region, Norway have been invited to repeated surveys since 1984-86. The study data may be linked to local and national health registries. The HUNT4 survey in 2017-19 included 56 042 participants in Nord-Trøndelag and 107 711 participants in the neighboring Sør-Trøndelag region. T...
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Objective This study examined the relationship between parental obesity polygenic risk and children’s BMI throughout adolescence. Additionally, from a smaller subsample, the objective was to assess whether parental polygenic risk score (PRS) may act as a proxy for offspring PRS in studies lacking offspring genetic data. Methods A total of 8,561 pa...
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Social anxiety disorder (SAD) typically emerges during childhood or early adolescence and often has long-term effects on several areas of an individual's life, including school and education. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social anxiety is associated with (1) school functioning in terms of behavioral difficulties (hyperactivity an...
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Background: Students pursuing higher education are struggling with psychological distress, which in turn may negatively affect their academic self-efficacy and study progress. Although psychotropic drug use is widespread and increasing, patterns of psychotropic drug use among students are not well-known. Aim: To describe prevalence and gender diffe...
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Abstract Objectives Psychosocial factors have been hypothesized to increase the risk of cancer. This study aims (1) to test whether psychosocial factors (depression, anxiety, recent loss events, subjective social support, relationship status, general distress, and neuroticism) are associated with the incidence of any cancer (any, breast, lung, pro...
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Background Symptoms of depression and anxiety are common in adults with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and diabetes mellitus (DM). The literature on depression and anxiety in CVDs and DM populations is extensive; however, studies examining these relationships over time, directly compared to adults without these conditions, are still lacking. This s...
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This study examined risk factors of physical aggression during transition from early to late adolescence using a two-wave longitudinal study. Specifically, we examined if risk factors in early adolescence predict physically aggressive behavior starting in late adolescence and why some adolescents desist physical aggressive behavior while others do...
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Background Considerable research has documented the effects of trauma exposure on conduct disorder and delinquency in high-risk and predominantly male samples. However, less is known about sex differences in the effects of trauma exposure on distinct features of conduct problems in non-clinical samples. Method In this study, we used cross-sectiona...
Article
Restructuring rural communities can be seen as natural population level experiments of great social epidemiological interest. Following the extensive decline in small-scale fishing in the later decades of the 20th century, many coastal communities have undergone considerable societal restructuring. In Norway, this has entailed a substantial reducti...
Article
Mental health disorders constitute a big loss of health. The “Act–Belong–Commit” framework is based on three simple principles to improve mental health. This cross-sectional study examined the association between the ABC dimensions and low levels of anxiety and depression symptoms in adults. Data from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT3) were analyse...
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Aim: Understanding whether increasing Life Expectancy (LE) translates to improved health and function among older adults is essential, but results are inconclusive. We aimed to estimate trends in Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) in the older Norwegian population by sex and education from 1995 to 2017. Method: National life table data were...
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Social anxiety is highly prevalent in adolescents and is often associated with great individual suffering and functional impairment. Psychiatric comorbidity is common and further adds to this burden. The purposes of this study were: (1) to describe the occurrence of diagnosed and self-reported social anxiety among 8,199 Norwegian adolescents aged 1...
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Participation in cultural activities may protect against cause-specific mortality; however, there is limited knowledge regarding this association. The present study examines the association between participation in a range of receptive and creative cultural activities and risk of cardiovascular disease- and cancer-related mortality. We also examine...
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Background Obesity has tripled worldwide since 1975 as environments are becoming more obesogenic. Our study investigates how changes in population weight and obesity over time are associated with genetic predisposition in the context of an obesogenic environment over 6 decades and examines the robustness of the findings using sibling design. Metho...
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BACKGROUND: The MINDMAP project implemented a multinational data infrastructure to investigate the direct and interactive effects of urban environments and individual determinants of mental well-being and cognitive function in ageing populations. Using a rigorous process involving multiple teams of experts, longitudinal data from six cohort studies...
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https://www.tronderdebatt.no/nar-psykisk-helse-settes-pa-dagsorden/o/5-122-8657?fbclid=IwAR0ZR_q-hktHux-SgTgQ3NXBo0yi56D-MGioXTTXKiEMzcfOhCWYg7mbUDI
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Multimorbidity and socioeconomic position are independently associated with mortality. We investigated the association of occupational position and several multimorbidity measures with all-cause mortality. A cohort of people aged 35 to 75 years who participated in the Trøndelag Health Study in 2006–2008 and had occupational data was linked to the N...
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Recent decades have shown an international trend of decline in small-scale fishing; a longstanding and vital industry for numerous coastal populations. The decline has resulted in a loss of livelihoods in many coastal communities, potentially afflicting public health. Still, knowledge about the health situation of these areas is limited. Former stu...
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Background Adolescents’ mental health, and its consistent relationship with their socioeconomic background, is a concern that should drive education, health, and employment policies. However, information about this relationship on a national scale is limited. We explore national overall trends and investigate possible socioeconomic disparities in a...
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Background Research suggests that genetic predisposition for common mental disorders may be moderated by the environment. This study examines whether a polygenic risk score (PRS) for depression is moderated by the level of residential area urbanicity using five symptoms of poor mental health as outcomes. Methods The study sample consisted of 41 19...
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Background: Lifestyle behaviours are potential risk factors for disease and mortality, but less is known about the association with health in retirement age. The aim of this paper was to study the prevalence, clustering and combined effects of lifestyle behaviours and their association with health outcomes in the first decade after retirement in a...
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This study investigates patterns of adoption and diffusion of innovative health technologies by socioeconomic status (SES) in order to assess the extent to which these technologies may be a fundamental cause of health‐related inequalities. Quantitative analyses examined SES‐based inequalities in the adoption and diffusion of diabetes technologies....
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Objectives To explore prevalences and occupational group inequalities of two measures of multimorbidity with frailty. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT), Norway, a total county population health survey, 2006–2008. Participants Participants older than 25 years, with complete questionnaires, measurements a...
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Objectives Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of multiple long-term conditions, is common and increasing. Definitions and assessment methods vary, yielding differences in estimates of prevalence and multimorbidity severity. Sociodemographic characteristics are associated with complicating factors of multimorbidity. We aimed to investigate the preval...
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Background Cultural activities can promote health and longevity, but longitudinal studies examining a broad spectrum of participation are scarce. This study investigated the gender-specific association between all-causes of mortality and participation in single types of cultural activities, amount and participation frequency. Methods We used cohor...
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Background: With increasing age, having multiple chronic conditions is the norm. It is of importance to study how co-existence of diseases affects functioning and mortality among older persons. Complex multimorbidity may be defined as three or more conditions affecting at least three different organ systems. The aim of this study was to investigat...
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Objectives To study the trajectories of body mass index (BMI) in Norway over five decades and to assess the differential influence of the obesogenic environment on BMI according to genetic predisposition. Design Longitudinal study. Setting General population of Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway. Participants 118 959 people aged 13-80 years who parti...
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Objective We conducted a population-based study on a sample of more than 7000 adolescents where we examined the associations between suicidal ideation (SI) and disordered eating (DE) and its related traits. Design Cross-sectional. Settings Data were derived from two Norwegian population-based cohorts, the Young-HUNT1 (1995–1997) and Young-HUNT3 (...
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Background: Availability of data on health and its determinants at the local area level is a prerequisite for developing interventions and public health campaigns locally. Collecting self-reported data by means of telephone interviews may rapidly provide relevant data. The reliability of such data may be questioned. In this study, we sought to comp...
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Higher education in health science and social work are examples of professional educations were it is vital to continue to learn and develop professional knowledge. This study focused on a specific education program which is of relevance to such professionals. Professional studies in health and social work demand insight into and knowledge of disci...
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Student life can be stressful and for some students it may cause mental distress. Besides being a major public health challenge, mental distress can influence academic achievement. The main objectives of the current study were to examine associations of mental distress with academic self-efficacy and study progress. A secondary aim was to examine m...
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Background Sedentary behavior is thought to pose different risks to those attributable to physical inactivity. However, few studies have examined the association between physical activity and sitting time with cancer incidence within the same population. Methods We followed 38,154 healthy Norwegian adults in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT)...
Data
Joint associations of sitting and PA with total cancer—crude estimates in men. (PDF)
Data
Joint associations of sitting and PA with colorectal cancer–adjusted estimates in women. (PDF)
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Objective Obesity tends to cluster in families reflecting both common genetics and shared lifestyle patterns within the family environment. The aim of this study was to examine whether parental lifestyle changes over time, exemplified by changes in weight and physical activity, could affect offspring weight in adolescents and if