Kerstin Nilsson

• Professor. Associate professor & Dr.med.Sc. in Public Health Epidemiology & Associate professor and PhD in Work Science ORCID 0000-0002-3193-205X
• Professor (Full) at Lund University & Kristianstad University

Nurses are essential pillars of society, providing care for the sick. It is crucial for society to ensure that nurses have favorable working conditions, as they face a heightened risk of negative psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress, and emotional exhaustion due to the demanding nature of their work. The strain on healthcare...

Working as a nurse offers job security but also poses risks for mental health issues. This study aims to explore factors and processes that affected health and work experiences among nurses in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 nurses from high COVID-19 patient load areas (ambulance, emergency dep...

Background School principals face a demanding work situation that puts them at risk for stress-related poor mental health. Ideally, preventive actions should be based on knowledge about the underlying notions that motivate action. However, knowledge about prevention areas and suitable initiatives for school principals is scarce or lacking, leaving...

Nurses represent a high percentage of employees in health care; however, there is a shortage. Working as a nurse includes both advantages, such as job security, and disadvantages, such as a greater risk of developing mental ill health. Aim: To explore which salutogenic and pathogenic factors influence nurses’ health and work situation. Methodology:...

Nurses are among society's mainstays, as they care for and take care of sick people. Therefore, it is also important that society ensure that nurses have a good working situation, as they run an increased risk of experiencing negative psychological conditions, including depression, anxiety, stress, and emotional exhaustion, due to the demanding nat...

Work is central to people’s lives and the course of their life. The opportunities and chances an individual can have in their life are significantly connected to work. Individuals' work is also crucial for organisations, companies and for the whole of society. There is a constant need to make changes and readjustments of working life since these ca...

Work is central to people’s lives and the course of their life. The opportunities and chances an individual can have in their life are significantly connected to work. Individuals' work is also crucial for organisations, companies and for the whole of society. There is a constant need to make changes and readjustments of working life since these ca...

PURPOSE: This study aims to describe and evaluate the impact of a participatory age-management intervention on the knowledge, awareness and engagement of line managers and their HR partners from six health-care organizations in Sweden. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The learning workshops consisted of lectures, discussions, feedback and exchange of...

Background: Foreign-born workers in high-income countries experience higher rates of COVID-19 but the causes are only partially known. Aims: To examine if the occupational risk of COVID-19 in foreign-born workers deviates from the risk in native-born employees in Denmark. Methods: Within a registry-based cohort of all residents employed in Den...

Objective To map the risk of work-related SARS-CoV-2 across occupations and pandemic waves and investigate its impact on morbidity and partner-risk. Methods The cohort includes 2,4 million employees aged 20–69 with follow-up from 2020 through 2021. During this period, 261,203 employees had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and 4416 were admitted to hospi...

Over de siste 5-6 årene har Senter for seniorpolitikk iverksatt flere kartleggingsprosjekter for å dokumentere hvordan det er å være senior i ti ulike bransjer og yrker. I denne rapporten oppsummeres, konkretisere og vurderes de utfordringer og muligheter som er dokumentert for de ti bransjene og yrkene, både de generelle og de mer bransjespesifikk...

Objective Most earlier studies on occupational risk of COVID-19 covering the entire workforce are based on relatively rare outcomes such as hospital admission and mortality. This study examines the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection by occupational group based on real-time PCR (RT-PCR) tests. Methods The cohort includes 2.4 million Danish employees...

Objective: This study aimed to quantify the risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission in spouses living with partners in at-risk occupations in Denmark during 2020-21. Methods: Within a registry-based cohort of all Danish employees (N=2 451 542), we identified cohabiting couples, in which at least one member (spouse) held a job that according...

The proportion of elderly citizens is continuously increasing in most of the industrial world [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic put a lot of strain on healthcare organizations. Nurses account for over 50% of healthcare staff, and how nurses perform in their work is influenced by a number of human and work environmental factors. However, to our knowledge, there has not been a previous study with the intention to look at all areas that affect a sustainab...

Objective: Mounting evidence indicates increased risk of COVID-19 among healthcare personnel, but the evidence on risks in other occupations is limited. In this study, we quantify the occupational risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission in Denmark during 2020-2021. Methods: The source population included 2.4 million employees age 20-69 years...

Objective: Assuming that preventive measures to mitigate viral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at the workplace may have been improved in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined the occupational risk of COVID-19 related hospital admission across the four pandemic waves in Denmark between week 8, 2020, and week 50, 2021. Methods: The study in...

The work environment and especially the psychosocial work environment influence the mental and physical well-being of employees. The aim of this study was to identify and analyse the state of knowledge regarding nurses’ work situation, health, and person-centred work during the COVID-19 pandemic through a systematic review. Methods: Systematic Revi...

The objective of this study is to increase the knowledge regarding school principals’ work situations by examining the associations between various factors and the school principals’ assessments of their ability or wish to work until 65 years of age or longer. The 1356 participating school principals in this study were aged between 50 and 64 years...

In many countries, the retirement age is postponed due to the global demographic change, and a larger amount of older people need to participate in working life. However, how and what measures and action proposals that could extend and increase employees’ voluntary and sustainable participation in working life have not entirely been investigated. T...

A larger amount of older people need to participate in working life due to the global demographic change. It is the employer, through the manager, who enables employees to have access to measures in the workplace that facilitate and enable a sustainable extended working life. The aim of this study was to evaluate work life factors associated with m...

Social participation is important for health, and it is well known that high strain jobs impact negatively on mental and physical health. However, knowledge about the impact of psychosocial working conditions on social participation from a long-term perspective is lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between differ...

Background The leadership of principals is important for school, teacher and student related outcomes. To be capable of doing their work (i.e., having sufficient workability), school principals need proper organisational preconditions, motivation, and good health. It is therefore concerning that some studies suggest that principals have a work situ...

Due to the global demographic change many more people will need to work until an older age, and organisations and enterprises need to implement measures to facilitate an extended working life. The aim of this study was to investigate organisational measures and suggestions to promote and make improvements for a healthy and sustainable working life...

A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negatively affect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent various work environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions to change workplace among principals working in compulsory schools. A we...

Background: The labour force is ageing due to the demographic change and the postponement of old-age retirement in many countries. Objective: In order to increase the possibility for employees to maintain their employability and to keep working in an extended working life this intervention project tested a distance education as a technique to integ...

Background: The demographic change affects the retirement age, which has been postponed in many countries. Therefore, the number of senior employees is increasing in the world. However, managers’ attitudes towards their employees’ employability affect the employees’ possibilities regarding whether they can and want to work. Objective: The aim of th...

Background Few studies have assessed the mental health of principals, or studied associations with both organizational and social work environment factors and occupational balance. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate associations between supporting and demanding organizational and social work environment factors, occupatio...

Är arbetslivet ålderistiskt? Reflektioner om hur arbetsliv för den åldrande arbetskraften är och kan göras mer hållbart i Jönsson m.fl. (red.) Perspektiv på ålderism. Social Work Press; 2021, p. 249-269. 14. Inledning Med ålderism avses i detta kapitel stereotypa, negativa uppfattningar och attityder om individer utifrån tillskrivning till en...

Background While poor mental health and psychiatric disorders attributed to stressful work conditions are a public health concern in many countries, the health consequences of the occupational stress experienced by school principals is an understudied issue. Although current data is lacking, some research suggests that principals have a stressful w...

Syftet med denna kunskapssammanställning är att bidra med kunskap om arbetsmiljön i relation till den allt äldre arbetskraften. Hur förändras arbetstagarens behov och möjligheter i ett livslopps-perspektiv? Vad bör arbetsgivare och andra arbetsmiljöaktörer tänka på för att arbetskraften ska kunna och vilja arbeta till en hög ålder? Arbetsmiljöverke...

In the spring of 2017, the survey “Sustainable working life in health care” was carried out together with the total number of Region Skåne's health and medical care employees. The background to the study was to collect information on how health care professionals experience their work situation and the opportunity to work in an extended working lif...

Background: Due to the global demographic change, a larger amount of people will need to work until an older age, and organisations and enterprises need to make measures in order to facilitate an extended working life. The aim of this study was to investigate and find out organisational measures and suggestions to promote and make improvements for...

Background Due to the demographic challenge in most countries it is important to consider making work life sustainable. A sustainable work life is of importance in all age groups when working life will be extended to a higher age. Aim Towards a theoretical model with an impact on a sustainable working life for all ages, the swAge - model. Method...

Background: The ageing workforce has an impact on public health. The aim of this study was to evaluate work-related disorders, work tasks and measures associated with the possibility of working beyond 65 years of age or not. Method: The data comprised two sample surveys based on the Swedish population: the Survey of National Work-Related Health...

Background: The demographic situation with an increasing number of elderly citizens will postpone the retirement age in most countries. However, retirement is a socially accepted way to withdraw from a demanding working life. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the main factors associated to managers’ beliefs their employees want to o...

The Swedish healthcare sector is currently experiencing recruitment difficulties combined with increasing demand for healthcare services. This study accordingly seeks knowledge of the obstacles to and opportunities for retaining older employees in the Swedish healthcare sector. Results of interviews with line managers and human resource (HR) partne...

Background: The ageing workforce has an impact on public health. The aim of this study was to evaluate work-related disorders, work tasks and measures associated with the possibility of working beyond 65 years of age or not. Method: The data comprised two sample surveys based on the Swedish population: the Survey of National Work-Related Health Dis...

Background: The ageing workforce have an impact on public health. The aim of this study was to evaluate work-related disorders, work tasks and measures associated with possibility of working beyond 65 years of age or not. Method: The data comprised two sample surveys based on the Swedish population: the Survey of National Work-Related Health Disord...

Ett systematiskt arbetsmiljöarbete med fokus på alla åldrar bör fokusera på människors förmåga och vilja att arbeta, exempelvis genom en modell med fyra olika sfärer som relaterar till olika sätt att definiera ålder. Den första sfären handlar om hälsoeffekter och relaterar till den biologiska åldern. De andra sfärerna rör privatekonomi, stöd och ge...

We investigated the impact on work life exits from reduced access to disability pension (2006), and financial incentives to extend working life. Method and material We used labour statistics, social insurance, and income data, for all employees in Sweden, to compare occupational groups (SSYK, based on ISCO-88), and blue and white collar workers, w...

The frequent mounting and dismounting the tractor required by many farming operations increases the risk of falls, particularly for older farmers. The present study explored the risk factors related to tractor ingress and egress in older farmers from two countries with a different tradition in terms of safety culture: Sweden and Italy. Eighteen mal...

The demographic shift is fast becoming a global challenge and an important public health concern. The proportion of people over 65 years is currently 10% around the world, but it is expected to rise to 22% by the year 2050 [1]. Populations ageing rapidly is widely seen as one of the most powerful transformative forces affecting society over the nex...

Occupational balance promotes health, knowledge about occupational balance among older workers is important. This qualitative study aimed to describe occupational balance among older workers in Sweden. Six focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted with 26 workers, aged 65 years and older. The findings showed that drawing on abilitie...

Background In Sweden there is a socioeconomic divide between white and blue collar workers with respect to the risk for premature exit from working life. Disability pension has long represented a major reason behind early exits. Objective The present investigation aimed at studying the effect on socioeconomic groups of new guidelines issued by the...

Hållbart arbetsliv för alla åldrar i Helsingborgs stad I Sverige har det av samhällsekonomiska orsaker föreslagits att ålderspensionen ska senareläggas, eftersom pensionssystemet är uppbyggt så att vi ska arbeta två tredjedelar av våra liv. En av de största utmaningarna för den svenska arbetsmarknaden är att göra arbetslivet hållbart så att fler k...

This qualitative study investigates attitudes towards elderly workers and their work situation in different sectors, and explores perceptions and organizational measures that can enable an extended working life. Previous age management studies indicate that there are several interconnected measures and key areas of importance, and that there is a g...

The aim of this study was to explore older workers’ motivation for a full or extended working life. With particular focus on assistant nurses aged 55–64 years, working in the elderly care sector. Focus group interviews were conducted with five different groups of assistant nurses. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews and f...

Background: Societal interest in enabling older workers to prolong their working life has increased in recent years due to demographic change. Managers have a key role in extending working life among employees, because they control the organisation, work environment and potential measures enabling older workers to extend their working life. Objec...

Background: Reforms are changing pension systems in many European countries, in order to both restrict early retirement and force people to extend their working life. From occupational therapy and occupational science perspectives, studies focusing on aspects of working life that motivate the older worker is urgent. Aim: The aim was to describe inc...

Objectives: To perform an ergonomic analysis of work and machinery-related risks in a group of Swedish older farmers, investigating farmers' attitudes and perceptions about: 1) health status and work motivation, 2) physical and cognitive workload and difficulties in the interaction with machinery and technological innovations, and 3) risks and saf...

Andelen äldre ökar i de flesta länder genom att allt fler lever till en högre ålder samtidigt som andelen nyfödda minskar. Välfärden i samhället hålls upp av arbetskraften och en åldrande befolkning ger effekter på samhällsordningen när fler behöver försörjas av pensionssystemen. Detta ses ofta som ett hot mot den globala välfärden. För att finansi...

An increasing number of older people in the population will bring new challenges for the society and care coordination. One of the most important questions in care coordination is the employees’ work performance. The overall aim of this study was to examine care employees’ experience of factors that rule how they allocate their time and tasks in th...

The present study was undertaken in order to examine the differences between occupations in the Swedish labour market with respect to the risk for men and women of leaving working life prematurely. The project was carried out as a population study employing methodology used in demographics to predict life length at birth. Here, calculations of expe...

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate difference between whether individuals think they can work, and want to work until 65 years or not. Methods: A cross/sectional study including survey of 1949 employees aged 55 - 74 years. Results: Working environments were the most significant differences between the groups associated to if the responde...

Medellivslängden ökar och är idag över 80 år i 34 av världens länder, jämfört med i 19 länder år 2005. Detta ärpositivt, men den åldrande befolkningens hälsa är också en samhällsutmaning inte minst för välfärdssystemen.Hälso- och sjukvården riskerar blir särskilt belastad med allt fler vårdsökande äldre. Yrkesgrupperna inom hälsoochsjukvården har d...

The aim of this knowledge compilation is to contribute with know-ledge about the work environment in relation to the ever-older workforce. How do employee needs and possibilities change from a course of life perspective? What should the employer and other work environment actors think about in order for the workforce to be able to and want to work...