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Health behaviour is crucial for influencing health, making it a key component in health promotion. However, changing behaviours is complex, as many factors interact to determine health behaviours. Information, awareness, and knowledge are important but not enough. It is essential to move beyond focusing solely on individual psychological and cognitive factors to an understanding of the complex processes involved in health behaviour change. Social-ecological models account for these complex processes but risk being overly broad and all-encompassing.

This qualitative grounded theory study explores how individual, interpersonal, and environmental factors interplay to influence health behaviour, and examines how social-ecological models in health promotion can be tailored to address different ecological needs. Participants were recruited from a community-based cardiovascular disease-prevention program in Northern Sweden. Data was collected through in-depth interviews about health and health behaviours throughout the life course among middle-aged men and women.

The results illustrate how factors obstructing or enabling health behaviours vary in patterned ways for individuals with different health identities. Social-ecological interventions could be more effective if adapted to the specific needs of people with different health identities. In addition to screening for various risk factors, screening for health identities could be helpful in designing social-ecological health-promoting interventions.

This qualitative thematic study aimed to examine the placement of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in compulsory institutional care in Sweden, to expand knowledge regarding their care and treatment. The dataset comprised official documents and anonymized journal documents from personnel detailing the experiences of twenty-five unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in compulsory institutional care organized by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care in 2015. The study identified three main themes: traumatic life events and mental health, alignment between needs, goals, and treatment, and language difficulties. The findings revealed a high prevalence of severe traumatic experiences among the asylum-seeking minors, with half having endured significant psychological and physical trauma. Mental health issues were inconsistently addressed, and prior traumas were often overlooked in care planning. The majority exhibited various mental health problems, underscoring the need for tailored interventions. The study highlights challenges in aligning unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors' individual needs, treatment goals, and provided care. Language barriers emerged as a critical concern, impeding effective communication and treatment. Approximately 80% of the asylum-seeking minors experienced difficulties in understanding and expressing themselves in Swedish. The limited use of professional interpreters further exacerbated this issue. The study underscores the need for targeted interventions to better support unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors within compulsory institutional settings.

Poliser i yttre tjänst har en avgörande roll i att förebygga, förhindra och upptäcka brottslig verksamhet, samt att bevaka den allmänna ordningen och säkerheten. Detta uppdrag är inte begränsat till en specifik plats utan spänner över hela samhället. Det innebär att hela samhället utgör polisernas arbetsmiljö. Denna arbetsmiljö är dock komplex och involverar risker såsom hot och våld. Det gör att poliser i yttre tjänst löper en särskilt hög risk för övergrepp, vilket kan leda till långvariga fysiska och psykiska påverkningar.

Poliser ställs inför ökande krav, särskilt med tanke på de samhällsutmaningar som finns idag med exempelvis den grova organiserade brottsligheten. En hög andel poliser överväger att lämna yrket och upplever känslor av otillräcklighet. Det indikerar att det finns utmaningar i arbetsmiljön. Det är därför nödvändigt att få en systematisk översikt över risk- och friskfaktorer på individ-, organisations och samhällsnivå för att utveckla effektiva arbetsmiljöstrategier för en hållbar polisorganisation.

Forskargruppens uppdrag av Myndigheten för arbetsmiljökunskap är att sammanställa befintlig forskning som genomförts i Sverige och Europa de senaste tio åren gällande arbetsmiljö för poliser i yttre tjänst. Resultatet kan vara ett stöd i den svenska polismyndighetens arbetsmiljöarbete.

Background: The increase in adolescents reporting mental health problems presents a major public health challenge. The complex association between mental health and social capital motivates further investigation of social capital as a crucial aspect in shaping adolescents' help-seeking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours.

Aim: This protocol presents a project that aims to investigate social capital in relation to help-seeking and mental health in close collaboration with adolescents and key stakeholders in the school setting, in the southern part of Sweden.

Methods: A mixed-method design with three interconnected work packages (WP) will be undertaken with an emphasis on co-production where adolescents are involved throughout the process. WP1 is a development and validation of two questionnaire instruments for assessing social capital and help-seeking in adolescence. WP2 is a longitudinal quantitative study involving 1,500 adolescents from two regions representing rural and suburban/urban settings. Adolescents aged 15 will be asked to complete questionnaires concerning social capital, mental health, and help-seeking in a baseline and one-year follow-up, allowing for investigation of the role of social capital for help-seeking. WP3 is designed to elucidate experiences and knowledge of adolescents and key stakeholders via collaborative World Café workshops. These will be held along the project to evolve the generated knowledge and maximize it's applicability during and after the project is finalized.

Conclusion: The results are expected to further the understanding of the relationship between adolescents' social capital, mental health, and help-seeking, to contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind the paradoxical help-seeking patterns among adolescents today and to narrow the gap between research and practice to produce sustainable and efficient strategies, which may facilitate help-seeking and improve the mental health of adolescents within existing organizational structures.

An aim of committing terror is to instill fear in the population. This article explores to what extent Swedish citizens were cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally affected by the 2017 terrorist attack in Stockholm and how the citizens perceived that the authorities handled the situation. The study is based on data from a survey with 1996 participants, consisting of a random sample of people living in Sweden, aged 18–79 years. Our results show that exposure to terrorist acts has a significant negative psychological impact on the population in general and on those who do not feel part of Swedish society in particular. The attack's negative effect was despite the fact that the vast majority of respondents felt that society had handled the attack well and almost half of the respondents stated that they had gained increased confidence in the authorities.

Background: The COVID-19 control policies might negatively impact older adults’ participation in volunteer work, instrumental support provision, and the likelihood of receiving instrumental support. Studies that quantify changes in these activities and the related factors are limited. The current study aimed to examine the level of volunteering, instrumental support provision and receipt before and during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and to determine whether older adults’ volunteering, instrumental support provision and receipt were associated with individual exposure to COVID-19 and the stringency of country’s COVID-19 control policy during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Corona Survey 1 was designed to focus on community-dwelling Europeans aged ≥50 years. History of participation in volunteering work and instrumental support provision or receipt was assessed from the previous SHARE Wave data. The country’s COVID-19 control policy stringency index (S-Index) was from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker database. A total of 45,669 respondents from 26 European countries were included in the volunteering analysis. Seventeen European countries were included in the analyses of instrumental support provision (N = 36,518) and receipt (N = 36,526). The multilevel logistic regression model was fitted separately to analyse each activity.

Results: The level of volunteering and instrumental support provision was lower during the pandemic, but instrumental support receipt was higher. The country S-Index was positively associated with support provision (OR:1.13;95%CI:1.02–1.26) and negatively associated with support receipt (OR:0.69;95%CI:0.54–0.88). Exposure to COVID-19 was positively associated with support receipt (OR:1.64;95%CI:1.38–1.95). COVID-19 exposure on close ones positively associated with volunteering (OR:1.47;95%CI:1.32–1.65), support provision (OR:1.28;95%CI:1.19–1.39), and support receipt (OR:1.25;95%CI:1.15–1.35).

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted older Europeans’ volunteering, instrumental support provision, and instrumental support receipt from outside their household. When someone close to them was exposed to COVID-19, older Europeans were likely to receive instrumental support and to volunteer and provide instrumental support. A stricter country’s COVID-19 control policy might motivate older adults to provide instrumental support, but it prevents them from receiving instrumental support from outside their households. 

Syftet med denna artikel är att utforska hur centrala svenska aktörer upplever och hanterar arbetet med åldersbedömningar av asylsökande barn i Sverige. Vidare syftar artikeln till att diskutera hur dessa aktörer använder sitt handlingsutrymme till att balansera mellan den rättsliga regleringen å den ena sidan och barnets rättigheter och behov å den andra. I artikeln används Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater. Undersökningen baseras på kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tjänstepersoner vid Migrationsverket och rättsläkare. Av resultaten dras slutsatsen att tjänstepersonerna vid Migrationsverket har ett stort handlingsutrymme vid åldersbedömning av asylsökande barn, men att de i hög grad använder detta till att överlämna beslutet om ålder till rättsläkarna. Vidare dras slutsatsen att rättsläkarna har ett mer begränsat handlingsutrymme, eftersom det är utlåtanden från tandläkare och röntgenläkare som egentligen avgör vilken åldersbedömning som görs.

Background: Eliciting and understanding older persons’ descriptions of their resources for healthy ageing and the interaction of these resources with alcohol use and alcohol problems can facilitate health promotion. It can also inform clinicians when identifying areas of recovery capital that present risks and strength for older people seeking alcohol treatment. The objective of this study was to illuminate the experiences and perspectives of older persons on ageing, alcohol use, treatment, and recovery from alcohol problems, as well as their understanding of healthy ageing.

Methods: Eight men and two women, aged 61 to 73 years, with moderate drinking as a treatment goal and treated at an outpatient alcohol clinic in Sweden, participated in semi-structured audio-recorded virtual interviews. A qualitative content analysis examined the transcribed interviews.

Results: Three themes were identified: “Tipping the balance”, “Staying behind a veil” and “Lifting the vail”. First, participants understood healthy ageing as a personal and multidimensional process that involved actively expanding, maintaining or adjusting to the resources needed to lead an active and meaningful life while preserving autonomy, dignity and independence for as long as possible. Second, most participants viewed moderate alcohol use as a contributor to healthy ageing. They sought treatment when their drinking became unsustainable and an immediate threat to their healthy ageing resources. Stigma, ambivalence and a lack of treatment options, however, contributed to delayed treatment. Third, the participants responded to treatment approaches that elicited their concern, incorporated their expertise and treatment and life goals, appreciated their autonomy and agency, and considered them partners in goal setting and decision making. Reduced drinking helped participants regain their agency and improved their healthy ageing capital which in turn catalyzed continuing recovery.

Conclusions: Older persons in non-abstinent recovery perceive healthy ageing and alcohol recovery as personal and interacting multidimensional processes involving their agency to improve biopsychosocial functioning. Treatment approaches that recognize older persons’ desire for healthy ageing, incorporate their treatment goals and respect their autonomy are likely to be acceptable and effective.

Asylum-seeking minors are viewed as particularly vulnerable but are still exposed to coercive measures permitted by law. This study analyses Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Migration Agency officials’ perceptions of coercive measures towards minors in the asylum process in light of the Swedish law, and raises minors’ own voices on their experiences of coercive measures. Qualitative interviews were performed with 1) officials at the Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Migration Agency who manage and use coercive actions against minors and 2) former minors with experiences of being subjected to coercive measures. Based on a thematic analysis, the results illustrate how the officials’ perceptions about coercive measures are characterized by uncertainty and ambivalence. The minors expressed the importance of how they were treated during the asylum process rather than the coercive measure as such. Swedish law regulating coercive measures needs clarifications to give sufficient guidance for practice.

Objective: To assess whether different forms of cognitive social capital increased the relative probability of testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young men living in Stockholm, Sweden.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 with men aged 20–29 years living in Stockholm County, Sweden (n = 523). The main outcome was STI testing patterns (never tested, tested only within a 12-month period, tested only beyond a 12-month period, repeatedly tested). The main exposure were two forms of cognitive social capital: social support (having received help, having someone to share inner feelings with) and institutionalized trust (in school, healthcare, media). Data were analyzed using weighted multivariable multinomial logistic regression to obtain adjusted weighted relative probability ratio (aRPR).

Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, receiving help (aRPR: 5.2, 95% CI: 1.7–16.2) and having someone to share inner feelings with (aRPR: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.2–7.7) increased the relative probabilities of young men testing for STIs, but only for those testing beyond a 12-month period. Trust in media increased the relative probability of STI testing for those testing only within a 12-month period (aRPR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.1–6.1) and for those testing repeatedly (aRPR: 3.6, 95% CI: 1.5–8.8).

Conclusion: Young men in Stockholm County exhibit distinct STI testing patterns. Social support and trust in media were factors that increased the probability of being tested for STIs, with this effect varying according to the young men's STI testing pattern. Further studies are required to explore how trust in media might promote STI testing in this population.