Leena Eklund Karlsson

University of Southern Denmark | SDU · Unit for Health Promotion Research

Background Informal patient payments continue to exist in many European countries. These payments might take various forms but can be broadly defined as any payments in addition to formal fees determined by the terms of entitlement. Poor health system governance is considered one of the main factors contributing to their presence, although differen...

Migrants are especially susceptible to inequitable access to health care services and their access to health care may be further compromised by the tradition of informal patient payments in the Western Balkan countries. As a particularly vulnerable group, this study focused on the asylum-seeking migrants and the role of informal patient payments as...

Background Nurses work at headache centres throughout Europe, and their care for migraine patients is acknowledged. However, the specific roles and tasks of nursing vary, and a unified understanding is lacking, posing challenges to knowledge sharing and research. Objectives Using an e-Delphi study method, the objective is to obtain healthcare prof...

Background Many health care systems attempt to develop an integrated care approach that is a whole population health-oriented system. However, knowledge of strategies to support this effort are scarce and fragmented. The aim of the current paper is to investigate existing concepts of integrated care and their elements from a public health perspecti...

Background Nurses play an important role in the treatment of headache patients at the specialized headache centers in Europe, however, a unified definition of nursing tasks and conduction of tasks is lacking. The objective of this e-Delphi study is twofold. Initially, to obtain healthcare professional headache experts’ opinions on which tasks are a...

Health care systems are increasingly complex, and evidence shows poor coordination of care within and between providers, as well as at the interface between different levels of care. The purpose of this study is to explore users’ and providers’ (stakeholders’) perspectives of integrated care in Denmark. We conducted qualitative interviews with 19 p...

Background The five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) have long traditions of social welfare policies that have eradicated poverty as part of their goals. The purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of why child poverty is still significant in the Nordic countries despite existing strategies. Methods A...

Aim: This study investigates the non-medical public health and surveillance policies and actions for tackling the community spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Serbia and Sweden during the first five months of the pandemic in 2020. Method: The study is inspired by a process-tracing design for case study with a focus on the non-medical measures...

(1) Background: Informal patient payments continue to persist in the Serbian health care system, exposing vulnerable groups to private spending on health care. Migrants may in particular be subject to such payments, as they often experience barriers in access to health care. Little is known about migrants paying informally to access health care in...

Media coverage can affect audiences’ perceptions of immigrants, and can play a role in determining the content of public policy agendas, the formation of prejudices, and the prevalence of negative stereotyping. This study investigated the way in which immigrants are represented in the Danish media, which terms are used, what issues related to immig...

In Ireland, negative stereotypes of the Traveller population have long been a part of society. The beliefs that surround this minority group may not be based in fact, yet negative views persist such that Travellers find themselves excluded from mainstream society. The language used in discourse plays a critical role in the way Travellers are repres...

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), no studies have been documented to analyze the equity aspects of public health policies. The aims of the study were to identify policy documents in the KSA relevant to public health and to explore whether these include an equity approach. Twenty health-related documents were identified from various ministries’...

Background Evidence often shows that migrants in the European region have poor access to quality health care. Having a large number of migrants seeking towards Europe, crossing through i.e. Serbia, it is crucial to improve migrants' access to health care and ensure equality in service provision Aim To investigate what are the barriers and facilita...

This paper discusses the policy game methodology and design that will be used in a simulation that aims to assess and understand the public health policy making in Tunisia. The policy game aims to analyzes the interactions, alliances and networks formed by the institutions and stakeholders during a policy game intervention that will be organized in...

International migration is a complex phenomenon that touches on a multiplicity of economic, social and security aspects affecting our daily lives. In the Nordic countries' migration is a contentious political topic as the number of migrants has significantly increased in recent decades. The aim of this study is to analyse governmental policy docume...

Background: Although important syntheses and theoretical works exist in relation to understanding the organisational factors that facilitate research use, these contributions differ in their scope and object of study as well as their theoretical underpinnings. Therefore, from an exploratory angle, it may be useful to map out the current literature...

Introduction Collaboration between SDU and two Saudi Arabian (KSA) Universities started in 2012. Case 1 was a new public university for women; the contract (until spring 2017) aimed at knowledge transfer from SDU to two Bachelor of Science curricula (Epidemiology, and Health Education and Promotion). The aim was to train the trainers by teaching th...

Introduction A student-centered teaching method engages the student to take responsibility for his/her own learning. In this pedagogical approach, the role of the teacher has become to be a supportive coach rather than an authority and one-way superior knowledge provider. A teacher with good teaching skills actively involves and engages students in...

Introduction In an increasingly complex, rapidly changing world with a growing inequality gap, capacity building (CB) could function as an essential instrument for improving population health in a resilient and sustainable way. The PH community has been engaged in CB for decades, but there is little empirical evidence about the effectiveness of the...

Background: International migration is a complex phenomenon that touches on a multiplicity of economic, social and security aspects affecting our daily lives. In the Nordic countries migration is a contentious political topic as the number of migrants has significantly increased in recent decades.

Imagined stereotypes of Roma are prevailing across Europe and have an impact of discrimination and social exclusion of the Roma. In 2011, Denmark published their National Roma Inclusion Strategy as a response to the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy. This study analyses how the Roma are represented in the national policy and in ongoing discourse regardin...

Evidence has shown that the physician-patient relationship may affect patients in several dimensions, particularly in patients’ self-efficacy in managing chronic disease. This cross-sectional study assessed the association of the perceived physicianpatient relationship on perceived self-efficacy in self-managing chronic disease in 253 female patien...

Since public health problems are complex and the related policies need to address a wide range of sectors, cross-sectoral collaboration is beneficial. One intervention focusing on stimulating collaboration is a 'policy game'. The focus on specific problems facilitates relationships between the stakeholders and stimulates cross-sectoral policymaking...

Aims: This study aimed to identify applied definitions and measurements of economic poverty and to explore the proportions and characteristics of children and adolescents living in economic poverty in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden during the last decade and to compare various statistics between the Nordic countries. Methods: Offic...

Evidence syntheses use multidisciplinary and intersectoral sources of evidence to support policy-making. The Health Evidence Network (HEN) has supported and strengthened the use of evidence in health policy-making in the WHO European Region since 2003. The HEN synthesis report series responds to public health questions by summarizing the best avail...

Few studies address Serbian providers’ perceptions of informal payments and the association between these perceptions and health system governance. The aim was to investigate civil servants’ perceptions on informal payments of the health care system in Serbia and to link these results with available evidence on informal payments in other Western Ba...

Introduction: Informal patient payments for healthcare are common in the Western Balkans, negatively affecting public health and healthcare. Aim: To identify literature from the Western Balkans on what is known about informal patient payments and bought and brought goods, to examine their effects on healthcare and to determine what actions can be t...

Children of imprisoned parents have a two times greater risk of health problems, including difficulties in their environment, academic and behavioural problems as well as social stigma. Focusing on children who have parents in prison has not been a priority for research. This review aims to describe current knowledge on children who have imprisoned...

Children of imprisoned parents have a two times greater risk for health problems, including difficulties in their environment, academic and behavioural problems as well as social stigma. Focusing on children who have parents in prison has not been a priority for research. This review aims to describe current knowledge on children who have imprisone...

Roma people all over the world have often been subject to prejudice, stigma, discrimination and oppression. Many Roma have little or no education, which in combination with other factors often leads to unemployment and marginalization. Based on a case study in Sweden, this paper proposes an approach that can be used in participatory projects aiming...

Background: The healthcare industry increasingly requires skilled labor, and thus job satisfaction is a critical factor in attracting and retaining highly qualified staff. The objective of this research has been to study the job satisfaction levels of nurses in Cyprus working in three different areas of clinical practice (mental health, drug addict...

The knowledge-practice gap in public health is widely known. The importance of using different types of evidence for the development of effective health promotion has also been emphasized. Nevertheless, in practice, intervention decisions are often based on perceived short-term opportunities, lacking the most effective approaches, thus limiting the...

Background: A large quantity of evidence is available; however, it is dispersed in various databases, of diverse quality, and is seldom synthesized and packaged in a way that responds to a specific policy question. Different methods exist on synthesizing evidence and packaging evidence for policymakers. As evidence in policymaking comprises finding...

The stakes of producing evidence-informed policies are high when available evidence is abundant yet often not applicable and useful to policy-makers. The literature indicates that policy-makers need summaries of evidence with policy options and implications that are timely and relevant to health policy priorities. In 2003, the WHO Regional Office f...

The aim of this article was to explore what is known about the assumed connection between health literacy and empowerment and how this connection is portrayed in the scientific literature. If empowerment is an outcome of health literacy, what are the mechanisms behind this process? A literature search conducted in 2013 yielded 216 hits, of which fi...

Collaboration between research and policy is an essential element for knowledge-based public health. However, only half of the Danish municipalities have experience with collaborating with researchers or other stakeholders. Through content analysis of interviews and policy documents the study explores the involvement of external stakeholders in loc...

Poster abstract. Published in European Journal of Public Health 25, vol 3

Poster, Abstract published in the European Journal of Public Health, Vol 25, Suppl 3, 2015

This article describes the legacy of the Nordic School of Public Health NHV (NHV) in global health. We delineate how this field developed at NHV and describe selected research and research training endeavours with examples from Vietnam and Nepal as well as long-term teaching collaborations such as BRIMHEALTH (Baltic RIM Partnership for Public HEALT...

The basis for this article was a health promotion program based on participatory action research and work-integrated learning (WIL). Seven Roma people were employed and trained to work as local coordinators to empower the local Roma community by strengthening their participation in society and their sense of community, as well as to promote self-le...

This paper investigated peer educators’ perceptions of their self-empowerment, learning, and experiences of being a peer educator within the Leadership South Programme (LSP) in Cape Town, South Africa. The data about the peer educators’ perceptions was gathered through open-ended questionnaires and qualitative interviews and analysed through themat...

Aims: To explore if the term equity was applied and how measures for addressing social inequalities in health and reducing inequity were communicated in selected Nordic documents concerning public health. Methods: Documents from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden were collected and analysed by Nordic authors. Data included material from websit...

Statens offentliga utredningar har föreslagit en strategi där målet är att stänga välfärdsgapet mellan romer och andra grupper. Detta påstås dock ta minst en generation, eller 20 år, och är en satsning på landsbasis. I detta kapitel beskrivs ett projekt med samma målsättning, fastän på lokal nivå. Idén var att romer själva i större utsträckning än...

Many Roma people in Sweden are on the margins of society and face problems of social exclusion, institutional discrimination, low education, unemployment, and poor health. The aim is to describe how a group of Roma people, in West Sweden, understand health, well-being, and quality of life within the Roma context, and how they cope with their life-s...

: We examine the perceptions of Roma adolescents on health, well-being and quality of life (QoL) and how the Roma managed their own life situation within these areas. The data, which consists of interviews, was analysed through content analysis. The most common understanding of health and well-being was to feel good, secure and happy. A wide social...

The Roma people have been known in Europe for a 1000 years, during which they have usually been the subject of discrimination and oppression leading to isolation, powerlessness and poor health. The objective of this study is to investigate the sense of coherence (SOC) in relation to self-reported health among a group of Roma people in southwest Swe...

Workplace health promotion may include approaches focusing on behavioral change among employees and approaches with a holistic system-oriented thinking aiming at changing the physical, social and organizational factors of a setting. This literature review aimed to identify studies on workplace health promotion in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finl...

Poster and abstract in Health Technology Assessment Society (HTAi): 8th Annual Conference, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, June 2011 ; p. 294

The Health Evidence Network (HEN) was established approximately 3 years ago as a service to the health policy makers in the fifty-two member states of World Health Organization (WHO) Europe. The objective of the HEN is to (i) make it easier for policy makers to access evidence-based studies in the field of health, and to (ii) provide synthesis of a...

Influenza pandemics have occurred approximately every 10–50 yrs for at least several centuries, including three times in the 20th century. Influenza viruses can be highly contagious, spreading rapidly throughout regional and global populations. Furthermore, they can mutate rapidly and develop resistance to available treatments. Symptoms are general...