Ingrid Larsson

• RN,PhD, Senior Lecturer
• Professor in health and lifestyle at Halmstad University

Background: Patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA) treated with biological therapy are usually monitored by rheumatologists. Research shows that a nurse-led rheumatology clinic is safe and effective in monitoring biological therapy (1) and contributed added value in patients within rheumatology care, because the encounter with the nurse...

Background Newly graduated healthcare and social work professionals can experience stress and a perceived lack of competence when transitioning from academia to clinical practice, which can lead to health problems or leaving the profession. Globally, creating healthy workplaces remains a challenge. The aim of this study, which had a salutogenic app...

Background Patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression may be treated with nasal esketamine. The treatment requires administration in a healthcare facility and monitoring by a nurse. Existing research has mainly focused on the clinical effect of nasal esketamine, while less is known about patients’ experiences of treatment. A person-cent...

Tyngdtäcke har använts inom vården som ett icke-farmakologiskt behandlingsalternativ. Evidens har dock saknats om effekter av tyngdtäcke på sömnen. En crossover randomiserad kontrollerad studie har genomförts för att utvärdera effekten av tyngdtäcke på sömnbesvär hos barn 6-14 år med ADHD. Resultatet visade på ökad total sömntid, ökad sömneffektivi...

Aims The aim of this study was to explore healthcare leaders’ perceptions of the contribution of artificial intelligence (AI) to person-centred care (PCC). Methods The study had an explorative qualitative approach. Individual interviews were conducted from October 2020 to May 2021 with 26 healthcare leaders in a county council in Sweden. An abduct...

Health is multifaceted, with divergent interpretations in diverse cultures and groups of individuals. The ways individuals understand health might aid in developing future interventions. There is scant knowledge on how adolescents with depression conceptualise health. A descriptive qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach was used to des...

Introduction: Knee pain increases the risk of developing chronic widespread pain (CWP) and knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The prevalence of CWP and KOA has increased, and there is a need for early prevention. Therefore, the aim was to examine the associations of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and lifestyle habits with chronic pain at a two-yea...

Background Healthy lifestyle habits (regular physical activity, a healthy diet, no smoking and non-hazardous alcohol consumption) alongside pharmacological treatment can lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases and improve symptoms and quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore, healthcare professionals in rheumatology c...

Background It has been suggested that the university environment, to improve students’ health status and educational outcomes, should be based on a health promoting approach. More knowledge is needed about health promoting resources and lifestyle factors that may be of value for students in higher education and their future work-life balance. The a...

Background Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare but severe infectious disease. Patients with IE are treated for weeks in the hospital and have profound impairments to their health. New treatment modalities increase options for outpatient care. Little is known about how patients perceive their disease and hospitalisation. We aimed to explore the ne...

Implementation of artificial intelligence systems for healthcare is challenging. Understanding the barriers and implementation strategies can impact their adoption and allows for better anticipation and planning. This study’s objective was to create a detailed inventory of barriers to and strategies for AI implementation in healthcare to support ad...

Background Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) can lower their increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and improve symptoms and quality of life by adhering to modern pharmacological treatment and adopting a healthy lifestyle [1]. However, they may encounter diverse barriers, both related to the disease and more general barriers, hindering th...

Background Up to 35% of the adult European population have chronic pain [1]. The prevalence is estimated to increase with an older population and a sedentary lifestyle, and health-promotive research on chronic pain is crucial [2].Knee pain increases the risk of developing chronic widespread pain (CWP) [3]. Having CWP affects the individual, causing...

Background To translate and culturally adapt the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) to a Swedish version, CSHQ-SWE, and to assess its validity and reliability for use with children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods A total of 84 children with ADHD (51 boys and 33 girls; 6–12 years) and parents (7 men and 77 wo...

Background: Approximately 7.6% of children are diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep impairments affect 25–85%. There is a noticeable lack of research on girls and sex differences. The aim of this study was to examine sex differences in children with uncomplicated ADHD and sleep problems. Methods: Cross-sectional...

Study objectives: To examine differences in sample characteristics and longitudinal sleep outcomes according to weighted blanket adherence. Methods: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n =94), mean age 9.0 (sd 2.2, range 6-14) participated in a 16-week sleep intervention with weighted blankets (WB). Children were class...

Objective The aim was to explore whether occupational balance is associated with health, health-promoting resources, healthy lifestyle and social study factors among students during higher education within healthcare and social work. Design The study has a multicentre repeated cross-sectional design. Data were collected via a self-reported, web-ba...

Objectives Depression is increasing and is a leading cause of disease burden among adolescents. Available evidence-based treatments with medication or psychotherapy have modest effects. Aerobic exercise is a hopeful alternative as an augmenter or a stand-alone treatment. Qualitative studies have shown that participants in group exercise for adolesc...

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to be a solution for improving healthcare, increasing efficiency, and saving time and recourses. A lack of ethical principles for the use of AI in practice has been highlighted by several stakeholders due to the recent attention given to it. Research has shown an urgent need for more knowledge re...

Background Low health literacy is associated with worse pain and poorer self-management. This study (1) examined the level of health literacy and associations with lifestyle habits, health status, chronic pain, and radiographic knee osteoarthritis; and (2) explored experiences illuminating health literacy among individuals with knee pain. Methods...

A healthy lifestyle should be recommended to all patients with inflammatory arthritis due to the increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Healthcare professionals (HPs) are essential in supporting patients to achieve healthy lifestyle habits and are expected to follow international and national lifestyle management guidelines. Despite this, few...

Background Despite the extensive hopes and expectations for value creation resulting from the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare, research has predominantly been technology-centric rather than focused on the many changes that are required in clinical practice for the technology to be successfully implemented....

Weighted blankets are a non‐pharmacological intervention for treating sleep and anxiety problems in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, research on the efficacy of weighted blankets is sparse. The aim of this randomized controlled trial with a crossover design (4 + 4 weeks) was to evaluate the efficacy of weighted blank...

BACKGROUND Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential in healthcare to transform patient care and administrative processes, yet healthcare has been slow to adopt AI due to many types of barriers. Implementation science has shown the importance of structured implementation processes to overcome implementation barriers. However, there is a lack o...

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential in health care to transform patient care and administrative processes, yet health care has been slow to adopt AI due to many types of barriers. Implementation science has shown the importance of structured implementation processes to overcome implementation barriers. However, there is a lack...

Background Patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) benefit from combining pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to prevent damage to cartilage and bone, relieve symptoms, and improve or normalize physical function, quality of life, and social and work capacity. Healthy lifestyle habits, including regular physical activity, a h...

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease that greatly impacts all aspects of life. Living with RA affects patients’ physical, emotional, psychological, and social health. Patients with RA are treated with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and monitored with tight control to achieve low disease activity or remission. Neverthel...

Background Health literacy (HL) is the ability to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information [1]. A low level of HL is associated with worse pain problems, poorer self-care, and an obstacle for health-promoting interventions among individuals with chronic pain and radiographic knee osteoarthritis (rKOA). Objectives To examine 1) th...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is often presented as a technology that changes healthcare and is useful in clinical work in disease prediction, diagnosis, treatment effectiveness, and precision health. This study aimed to explore healthcare leaders' perceptions of the usefulness of AI applications in clinical work. The study was based on qualitative...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to improve health care, increase efficiency and save time and recourses, especially in the context of emergency care where many critical decisions are made. Research shows the urgent need to develop principles and guidance to ensure ethical AI use in healthcare. This study aimed to explore healthcare profes...

Introduction: Sleeping difficulties are common in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A sleep intervention with weighted blankets was designed to increase current understanding of using weighted blankets to target children's individual needs in connection with sleep and daytime functioning. Aim: To explore how children...

Objective/background Healthy sleep is particularly important for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as sleep disturbances might aggravate disease symptoms. This review aims to synthesize and report evidence on the effectiveness of sleep interventions in increasing sleep, quality of life (QoL), and ADHD symptoms among chi...

Sleep problems represent a significant challenge for children with ADHD. However, lack of knowledge about how sleep affects children with ADHD in terms of their health and everyday life prevents the development and implementation of interventions to promote sleep. The aim of this study was to explore parents’ experiences of direct and indirect impl...

Patients who suffer from long-term symptoms of COVID-19, described as post COVID-19 condition, are a new and large group of patients. There is a lack of knowledge concerning health experiences in this patient group. The aim of this study was to explore patients’ health experiences of post COVID-19 condition. Data collection was performed through 14...

Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely seen as critical for tackling fundamental challenges faced by health systems. However, research is scant on the factors that influence the implementation and routine use of AI in healthcare, how AI may interact with the context in which it is implemented, and how it can contribute to wider health...

Background There are substantial challenges in the implementation of intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare. This study aimed to provide an insight into implementation preconditions by exploring the perceptions of leaders and managers in Swedish healthcare concerning the intervention characteristics of AI as an innovation to be implemented in...

Knee pain is an early sign of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and a risk factor for chronic widespread pain (CWP). Early prevention is vital, and more research is needed to understand health-promoting activities for individuals with knee pain from a patient perspective. This study aimed to explore how individuals with knee pain experienced health-promoti...

Background Educational environments are considered important in strengthening students’ health status and knowledge, which are associated with good educational outcomes. It has been suggested to establish healthy universities based on a salutogenic approach – namely, health promotion. The aim of this study was to describe health-promoting resources...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health and lifestyles of both the general population and of vulnerable groups. Individuals with knee pain are recommended to lead an active lifestyle to relieve pain but find it difficult to maintain health and lifestyle compared to the general population due to the cause of chronic pain, impaired physical fun...

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare presents potential solutions to some of the challenges faced by health systems around the world. However, it is well established in implementation and innovation research that novel technologies are often resisted by healthcare leaders, which contributes to their slow and variable uptake. Altho...

Introduction Depression is common, increasing among adolescents and carries risk of disability, lower educational achievements, cardiovascular disease, substance abuse, self-harm and suicide. The effects of evidence-based treatments with medication or psychotherapy are modest. Aerobic exercise is a promising intervention for adolescents with depres...

BACKGROUND Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often heralded as a potential disruptor that will transform the way we do medicine. The amount of data collected and available in health care, coupled with advances in computational power, have contributed to advances in AI and an exponential growth of publications. However, the development of AI applicati...

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) is often heralded as a potential disruptor that will transform the practice of medicine. The amount of data collected and available in health care, coupled with advances in computational power, has contributed to advances in AI and an exponential growth of publications. However, the development of AI applicat...

Objectives: To disseminate and assess the level of acceptability and applicability of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) recommendations for patient education among professionals in rheumatology across Europe and three Asian countries and identify potential barriers and facilitators to their application. Methods: A pa...

Background Most individuals with knee pain develop radiographic knee osteoarthritis over time [1], and up to 30% develop chronic widespread pain (CWP) [2]. Many studies only focus on physical activity or weight loss when it comes to managing knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and chronic pain. There is a challenge to get more individuals to follow the exist...

Background Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory systemic disease that mainly affects joints and with symptoms such as stiffness, pain, and increased fatigue. RA also appears to be an independent risk factor for accelerated atherosclerosis with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, why national and international guidelines rec...

Background Covid-19 has affected everyday life, health and lifestyle among the general population and vulnerable groups. Individuals with knee pain are recommended an active lifestyle to reveal pain but find it difficult to maintain health and lifestyle compared to the general population due to the cause of chronic pain, impaired physical function...

Objectives: To explore patients' agreement and reasons for agreement or disagreement with the EULAR recommendations for patient education (PE) for people with inflammatory arthritis (IA). Methods: This mixed-method survey collected data using snowball sampling. The survey had been translated into 20 languages by local healthcare professionals, r...

Physical exercise is a potentially effective treatment for adolescents with mild to moderate depression. However, there is a lack of long-term follow-ups to reveal adolescents’ experiences of exercise as a treatment for depression. The salutogenic concept of sense of coherence (SOC), comprising the domains manageability, comprehensibility, and mean...

Aims and objectives The aim was to conduct a synthesis of the literature on value‐creating care for older persons with incontinence provided with toileting assistance and containment strategies, from the perspectives of older persons and healthcare professionals. Background Incontinence is a health problem for many persons worldwide and the proble...

Background: An increase in the demand for child participation in health care requires tools that enable and empower children to be involved in the co-production of their own care. The development of such tools should involve children, but participatory design and research with children have challenges, in particular, when involving children with di...

Sleep disturbances are common among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While pharmacological treatment has increased dramatically, parents often prefer non-pharmacological interventions. Research on experiences of weighted blankets and their effect in sleep improvement is scarce. The aim of this study was to explore pare...

In elite soccer, training becomes more systematic and soccer clubs try to optimise their physiological training programs. Previous research has investigated many aspects of soccer, but research into the coaches' own experiences and continuous improvement of physical training is lacking. The aim of this study was to describe the coaches' experiences...

Ensuring that children have opportunities to be involved in decision-making regarding their own care is associated with quality improvement in pediatric rehabilitation. The aim of the study was to explore parents’ perceptions of the value of children’s participation in pediatric rehabilitation services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted wit...

In order to develop suitable support for participation in pediatric rehabilitation, it is important to understand what barriers need to be bridged from the perspectives of both children and adults. The aim of this study was to explore barriers to participation in pediatric rehabilitation services, according to children and young people with disabil...

Background Empowerment is important to patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) because most care is in the form of self-management. The aim was to study levels of empowerment and associated variables in patients with RA and to investigate longitudinal clinical data in patients with low and high empowerment. Methods A postal survey was sent in 2017...

Objective Most research on patient experiences of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) care is performed with patients who have established RA and less often with patients with early RA. Experiences of and expectations about health care may change over time, which is why the aim was to explore patients’ perceptions of person-centered care (PCC) early in the R...

Background Knee osteoarthritis (KOA), chronic widespread pain (CWP) and overweight/obesity are public health problems that often coincide, and there is a multifactorial and unclear relationship between them. The study aimed to (1) investigate pain sensitivity, assessed by pressure pain thresholds (PPTs), among women and men with knee pain and (2) a...

Background The WHO describes empowerment as a process in which patients can take control and make informed decisions about their life and health. Empowerment is important for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since most of the care is provided by the patients themselves. Objectives The aim was to study levels of empowerment and associated va...

Background Data on patients’ experience can identify strengths and weaknesses with given care, why a person-centred care will improve health care quality. In rheumatology care, most research on patient preferences for and experiences of RA care is performed in patients with established RA and less often in patients with early RA. In the early cours...

Exercise can improve health among adolescents with depression. Understanding facilitators for and barriers to maintaining exercise among adolescents with depression may increase adherence to exercise and consequently improve health. The aim was to explore adolescents’ experiences of facilitators for and barriers to maintaining exercise after a grou...

BACKGROUND An increased demand for child participation in health care requires tools that enable and empower children to be involved in co-production of their own care. Development of such tools should involve children, but participatory design and research with children raise challenges, particularly when involving children with disabilities where...

Background: An increase in the demand for child participation in health care requires tools that enable and empower children to be involved in the co-production of their own care. The development of such tools should involve children, but participatory design and research with children have challenges, in particular, when involving children with d...

Aim: Depression is common and rising in adolescents. Recent meta-analyses indicate a moderate effect of exercise on depression symptoms. Clinically referred adolescents and their experiences of an exercise intervention have rarely been studied. The aim of this study was to describe clinically referred adolescents' experience of moderate to vigorou...

Purpose: Long-term pain is a public health problem but few studies have focused on experiences among women with CWP. This study aimed to explore women’s experiences of the impact of CWP on daily life. Method: The participants were 19 women between 45–67 years old, who had developed CWP between 1995 and 2016. Individual interviews were conducted and...

Background: In nursing and midwifery, the concept of environment is considered a meta-concept. Research findings suggest that the location is not the only important factor, as both place and space influence the practices of midwives. Moreover, research on the geography of health suggests a connection between place and health that could be extended...

Objectives: To explore treatment outcomes preferred by patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and how these change throughout the early disease stage across three European countries. Methods: A longitudinal, qualitative, multicentre study was conducted in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. 80 patients with early RA were individually int...

Purpose To explore patients’ preferred treatment outcomes during their first two years with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients and Methods A qualitative, longitudinal, multicenter study with interviews at two time points was performed in Sweden. Individual interviews were conducted at time point 1 with 31 patients with RA, defined as disease dura...

Background: Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is a musculoskeletal disorder that affects approximately 10% of the population. It is more common in women than in men. It is important to understand how CWP develops and how it is maintained in order to prevent poor pain prognosis. Long term studies have shown that a mere part improves over time or fluctu...

Background Approximate 30% of individuals with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA) had developed chronic widespread pain (CWP) over a period of 20 years [1]. In order to prevent CWP in those with knee pain, it is important to study associated factors. Objectives The aim was to study pressure pain thresholds among individuals with knee pain with o...

Background: The World Health Organization has highlighted the importance of health promotion for health service providers in order to ensure sustainable working life for individuals involved in providing health services. Such sustainability begins when students are preparing to manage their own future health and welfare in working life. It has bee...

According to the United Nation’s Convention of the Rights of the Child, children have the right to participate in their own healthcare and make their opinions heard. The aim of this study was thus to explore the impact of using an eHealth service, Sisom, to gain the children’s perspectives during their healthcare appointments. Data were gathered th...

Background: Chronic widespread pain (CWP) has a negative impact on health status, but results have varied regarding gender-related differences and reported health status. The aim was to study the impact of CWP on health status in women and men aged 35–54 years in a sample of the general population. The aim was further to investigate lifestyle-relat...

Background: The growing field of participation in healthcare has the potential to provide a number of benefits for children, patients, healthcare professionals and also the healthcare systems. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children have the right to participate in their own healthcare and make their voice heard. C...

Objectives The aim was to study if patients with RA recalled having discussions concerning lifestyle habits during their healthcare visits. A secondary aim was to study the association between patients' reported lifestyle and their wish to discuss it. Methods A postal questionnaire sent to 1,542 eligible patients from the Better Anti-Rheumatic Pha...

Objective The goal of this study was to provide a greater understanding of physical activity in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. The aim was twofold: first to explore if physical activity was associated with factors in the clinical picture of rheumatoid arthritis in this patient group, and second, to explore factors influencing physical ac...

Background Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is a major burden to both the person and the community. Non-tumor chronic pain is one of the most common causes for long-term sickness absence in Sweden. The prevalence of CWP in the general population is approximately 10%, and the condition is almost twice as prevalent in women, than in men. Increased under...

Background Rheumatology care strives to identify and meet the needs of the patients, and to understand disease and treatment impact from the patients’ perspective. A better understanding of patients’ expectations from the treatment is needed to enable a patient centered approach in clinical practice and a shared-decision making as recommended in th...

Background Approximately 10% of the population report chronic widespread pain (CWP), the condition is more common in women than in men. Long-term pain is a public health problem. For most women, the pain interferes with many aspects of every-day life and implies large consequences. Thus, knowledge about how to facilitate life for these women is imp...

Background Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is a common condition (approximately 10% prevalence), that affects women twice as often as men. There is a lack of knowledge in how different coping strategies relates to health status during CWP development in a general population. Objectives To explore different ways of coping with CWP and to relate the d...

Background The importance of physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is well known and patients are informed about the importance of being physically active. Despite this knowledge there is a lack of compliance to this advice. Studies comparing physical activity in different groups of patients with RA and reasons influencing physical activit...

BACKGROUND Building a health-care system of justice requires a child-centered care where children and young people, regardless of ability, are allowed to participate in their contact with their healthcare professionals. Implementation of interventions that support children’s participation in healthcare is still rare, and especially so when it comes...

Background: Building a health care system in accordance with the rule of law requires child-centered care, where children and young people, regardless of ability, are allowed to participate in visits with their health care professionals. As part of an overall project focusing on developing and implementing a digital decision support tool to increa...

BACKGROUND Children’s participation in healthcare is one of the most important components in the management of their disease. eHealth services that are adapted to the needs of children have the potential for restructuring how children and professionals work together. We have developed the digital interactive assessment and communication tool, Sisom...

Background: Children's participation in health care is one of the most important components in the management of their disease. Electronic health (eHealth) services that are adapted to the needs of children have the potential for restructuring how children and professionals work together. Therefore, a digital interactive assessment and communicati...

Introduction Including the patient perspective is important to achieve optimal outcomes in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Ample qualitative studies exist on patient outcomes in RA. A Belgian study recently unravelled what matters most to patients throughout the overwhelming and rapidly evolving early stage of RA. The present study, Eur...

Objectives The aims were to identify patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had stopped drinking alcohol and compare them with patients drinking alcohol, and to explore reasons for stopping drinking alcohol. Design A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used. Setting Six rheumatology clinics in Southern Sweden Better Anti-Rheumati...

Background Previous research suggests that sleep problems may be an important predictor for chronic widespread pain (CWP). With this study we investigated both sleep problems and fatigue as predictors for the onset of CWP over a 5-year and an 18-year perspective in a population free from CWP at baseline. Methods To get a more stable classification...

The aim of this study was to describe the occurrence of vitality affects and basic affects and to shed light on their importance in terms of patients’ inner change through art therapy. In an earlier study, where 17 women were interviewed about inner change through art therapy, a secondary deductive content analysis of images and statements was perf...

Background: Greater interest is being shown in participatory approaches, especially in research on interventions that concern children and young people's health and well-being. Although participatory approaches have user involvement in common, they differ in terms of the explicit guidance on how to actually involve and engage children and young pe...

Background Approximately ten percent of the population report chronic widespread pain (CWP), the condition is more common among women than men. For most people, the pain interferes with many aspects of every-day life and implies large consequences. However, the group reporting CWP is heterogeneous and there is a need for better understanding of the...

Background If localised pain represent one end of a pain spectra, with overall better general health, chronic widespread pain (CWP) and fibromyalgia represent the other end of the spectra with worse general health and more comorbidities with other somatic diseases and mental illness. Sleep problems and fatigue are common among individuals reporting...

Background The World Health Organization defines health as ”a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Health changes dramatically when a person becomes ill in a chronic disease as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a disease with great impact on all aspects of life. Living with RA...

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an increased risk of developing comorbidities which are known to be associated with lifestyle-related habits; such as having a sedentary lifestyle, having an unhealthy diet, smoking, and over-consumption of alcohol. In 2010, the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) published general guid...